The Difference of Normal
by Crosslit.Heavens
Summary: The gang ends up in our world. No hidden demons. No shaky pasts. Nothing strange. Instead, they are faced with the one thing they have never been able to obtain: normal...Slight HxOC and KxOC COMPLETE!
1. October 28th

Welcome to the story! Hope you enjoy!

Don't own YYH characters, just Sophie and Claire, and any other random people...

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The Difference of Normal

_October 28__th_

Sophie watched the rain hit the window as she drummed her fingers along the desk, running the events of the past few days through her mind.

No one would have believed her if she'd told them. No one would have thought it possible. No one would have understood what she was going through…

But that didn't really matter, because it had happened--_was_ happening.

It had been a few days ago when it'd started. Sophie and Claire had come home from school as normal, had just gotten out of the car and--_BANG_--there they were, standing in front of Sophie's mothers inn, as if by magic. No portals. No breaking TV's. No strange spells. Just...nothing...and there they were.

Things had progressed rather strangely after that. Intros had been made, and booking set. Everyone had been shocked to hear that they came from an anime, shocked that there were no monsters in this world for them to fight. In turn, Sophie had been shocked to hear that they had no idea how they'd gotten there, to the "real" world…

But that was all behind them now. They had met, knew each others names. They were staying under the same roof. Everything.

It was like some fanfiction story, in which the heroin meets all of the characters she's obsessed over for so long. A fangirls dream. Paradise…

And yet, Sophie couldn't help but hating it. Who would have thought that her dream would turn into a nightmare. Who would have thought that she would wish that things would just _go back to normal_, instead of having her favorite characters stay at her house?

She wouldn't have guessed. Never.

Sophie sighed as the rain continued to pelt the window closest to her, a face popping up in front of her desk.

"Hi, Yusuke," she said, bored. "What do you want?"

Yusuke was all grins. "Hey, Soph," he greeted, using her hastily earned nickname. "What's up?"

Sophie raised an eyebrow at the question, knowing it wasn't as innocent as it seemed. "'What's up'?" she repeated. "Are you seriously trying to use that one on me? What is it you _want_?"

Yusuke tried to play innocent, but it just wasn't in him. He grinned at her as he stood to his full heigh, leaning against the front desk. "I was wondering," he said. "Is this whole place a boring shack, or is it just my room?"

Sophie glared at the question, knowing it wasn't the first time he'd asked it.

Yusuke and his group--Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Koenma, Botan and Keiko--had been staying at her mothers inn since they'd landed in the "real world", obviously not having any other place to go. Since then she'd heard so many complaints about her new "friends" rooms, she could have built a bridge to the moon with them.

Yusuke had a point, though. Her mothers inn wasn't exactly exciting. In fact, it was probably one of the most boring places on earth. There was no TV, they didn't have a game room, and the only internet connection was slow-paced and barely working--and the only reason they had that was so she could attempt to work on her schoolwork.

Sophie sighed as she looked at Yusuke. "Sorry," she said, hopping from her seat. "There's nothing, and I have schoolwork to do," she saw Yusuke gape at her as she exited the room. "Your on your own for now."

Sophie felt herself sigh as she made her way up the inn's creaking stairs, her shoulders feeling heavy.

Yes, no would have believed her if she'd told them what she was going through, because, honestly, she didn't know herself. She had everything she'd ever wished for at her fingertips--right there, so close--and yet, she didn't seem to want it anymore.

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Sorry this chap was so short. Just trying to set the mood.

Reviews are loved, and criticism is fine, just please be nice. ^__^ See you next chap!


	2. October 29th

Hello again! Thanks to everyone who read the last chapter. Hope you liked it!

Enjoy~

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_October 29__th_

If you had asked Claire what she thought she would be doing that morning, it wouldn't have been this.

"No, it goes over there!" Yusuke complained as he leaned against the ladder, sighing fitfully.

Claire blinked, repositioning the lightbulb. "Here?" she asked, and saw the teen frown.

"No, more to the left," Yusuke shifted his head along with the instructions, moving along with Claire as she moved the lightbulb. "Almost...not quite...keep going, and...your there!"

Claire sighed, screwing the lightbulb into the socket. "Well, glad thats over," she said, looking down at Yusuke. "Now…" her face paled as she stared at the ground, which might have been three feet away. "How to get down…"

"That's easy," Kuwabara was the one to speak this time, sitting backwards in a chair. "Just walk down the stairs. Even I could have figured that one out."

Claire saw Yusuke grin. "Amazing…" he said, and Kuwabara glared at him, punching him in the arm.

"Shut up, Urameshi!"

"Make me, Kuwabara!"

"I might just--"

Claire stopped listening to the shouts, now holding onto the top of the ladder, panicking.

She probably would have asked Yusuke or Kuwabara to change the lightbulb in the inn's "recreation room", if it hadn't been that she'd seen it first. Claire had already been up on the ladder when the two goofy friends had walked in, throwing insults at one another as normal. Kuwabara had nearly knocked over the ladder as he'd put Yusuke in a headlock, and that's when they'd noticed her…

But they weren't noticing her now.

"Um...guys…?" Claire tried pathetically, suddenly feeling woozy, the ground starting to spin as she looked down at it. "Could you…?" she lost her ability to speak as she gripped the top of the ladder harder, starting to sweat now.

Claire saw now how stupid it had been of her to climb onto the ladder, even if she was just trying to help by fixing the lightbulb. She felt a scream build in her throat as she shut her eyes, hearing a grunt as Yusuke wrestled out of Kuwabara's grip.

It was then that the boys noticed her.

"Um...hey...are you okay?" Claire opened her eyes upon hearing Yusuke's voice. "Don't tell me…" he trailed off, sighing as he grimaced.

Claire tried to nod. "Yes," she said. "I'll admit it.…" she looked down again, paling even more. "Now can you please help me off of here! This ladder is wobbly!"

Claire let out a squeak a moment later as she felt Yusuke pick her up, setting her down on the floor. She collapsed onto the nearby couch as she tried to breathe, shakes wracking her whole body. She tried to smile as Kuwabara and Yusuke watched her worriedly (well, Yusuke looked more annoyed than worried), brushing her long hair from her face.

"Thanks.." Claire managed after a moment. "I'm sure glad you guys are here…"

And she was. More than she could have possibly said. Sure, things weren't like she thought they would be--not like they were in the fanfiction stories--but that was alright, because she had a feeling that reality was better than fiction…

When Yusuke and his friends had suddenly showed up in front of the inn, Claire had started hyperventalating immediately, shock overcoming her. It had taken everything she had to not faint, and even then Sophie had had to help her into the house, glaring at their newfound guests as if Claire's anxiety attack was their fault...which it sort of had been.

While Sophie had been outside with her mother, trying to sort everything out (as well as trying to figure out how everyone had gotten there), Claire had stared out the window, getting a up close and personal look at the characters she'd known for so long, all without really being near them.

It amazed her how someone could be so different than you thought they were, and how you could learn a lot about the person from simply watching them, as long as they didn't know you were doing it.

"So…" Yusuke's voice brought Claire forth from her thoughts as he plopped onto the couch next to her, Kuwabara pulling up his chair. "I guess we can add 'fear of heights' to your list of weirdity."

Claire laughed as she nodded. "Yes," she replied, scratching the back of her head. "And Yusuke?"

"Yeah?"

"'Weirdity' isn't a word."

Claire felt her mood lighten as she heard Kuwabara laugh loudly, Yusuke immediately protesting. Her world was changing, and things were strange for now, but…

But she had a feeling that with time, they would become normal again--if "normal" even existed anymore.

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Looks like these are all going to be short chapters. So here we have Claire, our other main OC. More on her later...

Please review!!! It makes the chapters write themselves faster. Critical analysis is welcome, but please be nice.


	3. October 30th

Hello everyone!

I would like to thank DarksAngeloftheNight for the lovely review!!!

Enjoy!

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_October 30__th_

"Don't tell me your afraid of cars, too?"

Sophie felt herself sigh as she looked over at Yusuke and Kuwabara, who were standing next to Claire, staring at Sophie's car--well, Claire was staring at the car, but the boys were staring at her.

Claire shook her head. "No...not really…" she said, but anyone with eyes could see she was starting to pale. "It's just…"

_A fact. _Sophie thought, sighing again as her mother, Keiko, Botan, Koenma, Hiei and Kurama exited the inn. _Just a fact. Like everything else. _

Sophie's life had become a whirlwind of facts since she'd started school, all of them less interesting than the last, all of them "vital" to her educated life. What is a genome? How many times can you smoke before your lungs are permanently damaged? What is the circumference of Pi? Does Pi even _have_ a circumference? All had become part of Sophie's mind, of her memories, of her very self…

Yes, she was very familiar with facts...though none of the facts seemed to make sense anymore.

"What's wrong with her?"

Claire was rocketed from her thoughts when she heard a voice, low and curious, sounding from right next to her.

To took her a moment to answer, and when she did, her voice was defensive. "Nothing's _wrong_ with her," she said heatedly, referring to none other than Claire, who was trying to escape the jabs of Yusuke as she attempted to slide into the passenger seat of Sophie's vehicle.

Hiei raised an eyebrow, obviously not agreeing. "Really?" he asked, the word as dead sounding as any he said. "I find that hard to believe."

Sophie's mouth formed a thin line as she glared at him, but she didn't flinch or look away, strangely not intimidated by his blood-red eyes.

Since Yusuke and his friends had arrived in the "real" world, Sophie hadn't seen much of her favorite character. Not that this shocked her, since he'd always been kind of a loner anyway. She'd been fine with not having him around, telling herself that as long as he didn't cause any trouble, she didn't care…

But that was only half the truth--really only a _third_ of it.

If the first third of the truth was that she didn't care if he were around or not, as long as he didn't cause her any trouble, then the second third was that she was glad he wasn't around because he made her nervous. Fan-girly. Whatever you wanted to call it.

But the third third of the truth was more complicated. The third third of the truth was that Sophie was shocked, because her favorite character was turning out to be someone different than she'd expected.

He was definitely still Hiei, of course. Just different than he'd been on the anime. Quieter maybe, if "quiet" meant "invisibly condescending". Sophie wasn't sure what had caused this change (or if it was really a change at all, or just the truth, not some overly-girly imagining of fanfiction), and she told herself she didn't care. That it didn't matter…

Not _really_.

It was the turning of Hiei's head towards Claire that brought Sophie from her thoughts. Sophie watched Hiei as he watched Claire argue with Yusuke and Kuwabara (more Yusuke) about getting into Sophie's car, not really liking the look he was giving her best friend. It was equal parts contempt and "blank", the "blank" being something Sophie couldn't quite put her finger on.

So, she focused on the contempt.

"There's _nothing_ wrong with Claire," she said again, earning Hiei's steely gaze as it shifted back to her. "She was in an accident."

Hiei glared at her. "You say that as if it's an excuse," he replied.

He was challenging her.

"It _is_ an excuse," Sophie simply gave him a cold look, her mouth forming a thin line. "She saw people die. That tends to change a person," she thought she saw something in his eyes light, like a fire, before she turned away. "You of all people should know that..."

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Go, Sophie! LOL Let's all hear a round of applause for my friend (who shall remain nameless) who is my inspiration for Sophie. That's exactly what she would have said...

I'm going on vacation, so it may be a week or so before another chapter. Sorry!

Reviews are love, love, love, love, loved. Criticism welcome, just please be nice. See you next chap!


	4. October 31st

Hello everyone!

Wow, it's been forever. Sorry, I nearly forgot about this story...

IMPORTANT NOTE: Sorry to say, I'm going to have to cancel this story if I don't get more reviews. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but who likes to write a story with no feedback? Nobody, including me. So, if you love this story and don't want to see it go bye-bye, then please review.

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_October 31__st_

Claire watched her new set of friends as they sat around the big, round table at the Inn, examining all of their faces as they looked at the object sitting in the middle of the table, glowing faintly.

"What's the point of this again?" the question came from none other than Yusuke, aimed towards Sophie, who gave him an annoyed look.

"The point of _what_, exactly?" Sophie said, though Claire was pretty sure she knew what Yusuke was talking about.

And of course, Yusuke pointed to the object at the center of the table, solidifying Claire's suspicions. Claire followed the point of his finger to look at the pumpkin that sat there for everyone to see, the light inside it glowing, casting creepy shadows on the wall.

Today was Halloween, Claire's second favorite holiday...

_Only one more month left..._Claire thought as she stared into the Jack-O-Lantern's eyes, her heart feeling heavy. _Only one more month. _

She had been repeating the same thing to Sophie all day, though her tone had been much lighter.

"_Only one more month," _she'd said earlier that afternoon, as they were setting up for Sophie's mothers annual Halloween party. _"Isn't that enough time?" _

Sophie hadn't answered, of course. Not that Claire had blamed her…

"It's Halloween," it was Sophie's voice that brought Claire from her thoughts, back to the dining room of the Inn, and Yusuke's now puckered face. "Of course we have a Jack-O-Lantern. I made it myself, and…"

Claire ignored the rest of the conversation, staring at the floor instead. She was about to let her mind wander back to what she'd said to Sophie earlier that day, when suddenly there was a voice, coming from right beside her.

"Do you celebrate this holiday every year?" it was Kurama asking, of course, wanting to know everything as usual.

Claire looked up at him after a moment, not saying anything. His green eyes were locked onto her face, scrutinizing, trying to figure her out, and she tried not to let her nervousness show. In fact, she tried not to feel nervous at all, knowing that she might start to panic if she did.

Even though Claire was happy about the gang from the Yu Yu Hakusho world being there (unlike Sophie), she couldn't quite bring herself to accept the kitsune standing next to her. It wasn't like she had anything against him-quite the opposite, in fact-it was just that…

"Yes," Claire found her voice then, banishing the thought she had almost thought. "We celebrate Halloween every year. Just like the rest of the holidays."

She saw Kurama's eyes sparkle just a hint at her answer, and then turned away before he could say anything, suddenly feeling dizzy again.

Her eyes landed on the Jack-O-Lantern once again, and she took in the near-perfect picture of her old and new friends, and their Halloween. Strange how things had changed so much, and in only a few days…

_Only a few days. _Claire wanted to laugh at the phrase. _Yes… _

"_Only one more month. Isn't that enough time?" _

Yes. She would let those words echo in her mind, until the very end.

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Wow, well, if you were confused a bit in this chapter, then that's good. The plot is thickening, as they say. More explanation to come next chapter.

Remember to review, please!


	5. November 1st

Hello everyone!

Just a quick note here. I don't own the eateries listed below in the chapter, or YYH, but I do own Claire and Sophie. Yay me.

**_To my reviewer:_** Heve-Chan. This chapter is dedicated _entirely _to you, my only reviewer! Thanks for being so awesome! ^_^

Alright everyone, enjoy the chapter, and don't forget to review! -

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_November 1__st_

Sophie felt sick to her stomach as she watched the line in front of them, Yusuke and Kuwabara drooling beside her.

"Can you stop that?" Sophie knew her voice was harsh, but she didn't care. "It's _gross_."

Saying that Yusuke and Kuwabara were drooling wasn't an exaggeration. As Sophie looked over she saw Yusuke wipe at his mouth slowly, trying to be nonchalant about it. She grimaced at him and turned away, not quite hungry anymore.

She didn't know why her mother had suddenly had the ingenious plan to go out for dinner, since they had plenty to eat and cook at the Inn (though it was no secret that her mother hated cooking, since she usually made Sophie do it). Whatever the reason for her mother's sudden need to eat out, they were there, at a place that hardly qualified as a "restaurant".

"Couldn't we have gone to Olive Garden or something?" Sophie asked in exasperation, turning to her mother, who was currently checking her lipstick in a compact mirror.

Yusuke frowned at the name. "Olives?" he asked. "Why would we want to eat olives when we can eat _that_," he pointed to the tables around them, where people were happily munching their food, starting to drool slightly again.

"_Because_," Sophie crossed her arms, enunciating the word, as if it were a reason all in itself. "I mean, I like Five Guys and all, but…"

But her new friends had come from Japan, and she doubted they had ever eaten American food before. Couldn't they have eaten somewhere a little more fancy? It wasn't like they ate out all that often, since Sophie's mother was such a tight-wad (unless it came to makeup, or shoes, or jewelry, or something of the like)…

Though technically, Sophie supposed, Olive Garden was _Italian _food, not American.

_Still… _Sophie felt like she was having an debate, only it was in her head, and no one else could hear. _It would have been nice… _

"_Quit complaining." _

Sophie jumped, hearing a strange voice in her head. She blinked once before whirling around, glaring at Hiei, knowing instantly it had been him. She blushed slightly, looking to see if anyone had noticed her jump, but no one seemed to have...accept for Kurama, but Sophie seriously doubted there was anything he _didn't_ notice.

"_Don't do that." _Sophie glared at Hiei again, not liking the idea of having someone - let alone _Hiei _- hearing what she was thinking. _"My mind is the only personal space I have." _

Hiei didn't say anything in response. He simply gave her a stare that wasn't exactly nice - which Sophie was pretty sure said "I don't care if it _is_ the only personal space you have. I'm still going to invade it." Though she knew Hiei never said that much at once…

Sophie tried to ignore the annoyance pricking at her as she turned back towards the line, giving him the cold shoulder. She knew she couldn't stop him even if she wanted to, but that didn't mean she was going down without a fight - even if it was only a fight with her temper.

They were nearing the tip of the line now, about to order. Yusuke and Kuwabara couldn't seem to figure out what they wanted (even though the menu wasn't that big, and it was pretty much hamburgers or hot dogs, though no one really came there for the latter), and Claire didn't look all that hungry. In fact, she looked rather out of it, standing off to the side, which worried Claire…

She couldn't believe today was the first. That meant only twenty-nine more days…

_That isn't enough time. _Suddenly, Sophie wanted to cry. _That isn't near enough time. _

But it was all she had left. Claire reminded her of that daily. She didn't do it to be mean, Sophie knew, but somehow it seemed cruel.

_Cruel. _What a funny word. This whole situation was_ cruel. _

"Hi, welcome to Five Guys," they were at the register before Sophie could even blink, and everyone was ordering (some looking less happy about the food than others). "What would you li-"

The man at the register was cut off as Sophie heard a crash, her whole form stiffening at the sound. She whipped her head around the see a sight that stole her breath away.

Claire was on the ground, hand holding her wrist. Yusuke and Kuwabara were next to her, saying things like "I'm sorry" and "I didn't see you". The others members of the group were staring, minus Kurama, who was beside Claire, trying to talk her into letting him examine the damage.

And that's when Sophie saw it, dripping down her friends arm, flowing much more than it should have been-

Blood.

"What did you do!" Sophie couldn't keep the anger out of her voice any more than she could keep herself from yelling. "You-"

Yusuke had his hands up defensively almost instantly. "We didn't mean to," he said, and then frowned, looking at Claire. "We didn't even see her, and she's so small and tiny and-"

"That's no excuse!" Sophie knew she was causing a scene, but she didn't care. "You-"

This time is was Claire who cut her off. With Kurama's help she stood up, still holding her bloody wrist. "It's fine, Soph," she said in a small voice, audible only because Sophie had stopped yelling as soon as she'd stood. "I'm fine."

But Claire wasn't fine, and Sophie knew it…

Though she couldn't face it.

Sophie shook her head as she backed up a step and then, catching the blood on her friends wrist again, turned tail and ran out of the eatery, ignoring Claire's call.

Sophie didn't go far though. She stopped a few steps outside of Five Guys, suddenly feeling like she couldn't breathe. It was raining now, and the drops were hitting her, but she didn't care. She found a bench and sat down, shivering, knowing she hadn't really escaped what she was running from.

But at least she wasn't in _there… _

Sophie heard the door to the eatery open a moment later, and she knew that it was Claire.

"Sophie, what are you…" her friend trailed off as she came to stand beside Sophie, her eyes big. "Come back inside. I'm okay now. I mean..the bleeding has almost stopped," she looked down on that note.

Sophie didn't have the heart to point out that the bleeding should have stopped already.

Instead, she stared at the street, just a few steps away from where she was sitting. "I'm not going back in there," she stated angrily, wishing she could strangle something. "I'm staying here."

"But-" Claire's words were lost to Sophie's.

Sophie suddenly jumped from her bench, facing Claire. "They _hurt_ you!" she shouted, still feeling like there wasn't enough air, like the rain had sucked all of the life from the atmosphere, leaving her panting and hurting for breath. "They hurt you, and you don't even care!" it wasn't a question.

"Sophie!" Claire was mad now, her face scrunching, Sophie could see it. "Your being a jerk!"

Sophie turned red and backed up, almost hitting the bench. "No, I'm not!" she yelled back, and then stopped, taking as deep a breath as she could.

She needed to stop. She needed to calm down.

Claire couldn't afford to be mad at her. She was already starting to pale.

"Look," when Sophie spoke next her, voice was quiet. "I'm only being what I know to be, and if that means I'm a jerk, then fine," her felt her heart sink to the bottom of her chest as she looked Claire in the eye. "I don't know what to do, Claire. I'm...I'm _terrified_," she choked on the word, barely getting it out.

Claire didn't reply to that. She simply smiled weakly. "Come back inside?" she asked, glancing at the window of the eatery, where their new friends were, watching but not watching the conversation, trying to look as though everything was normal. "Please."

That "please" almost did Sophie in, but she shook her head. "No. I'm staying outside," and Claire left, knowing that she couldn't shake her.

As soon as Caire was gone, Sophie sunk back onto the park bench, her legs nearly giving out. She sat there for a moment, staring at the rain that was falling, soaking her, before she began to think.

It just wasn't fair, all of this.

Things had been okay, they had been fine, and then Yusuke and his stupid friends had shown up and ruined all of it. They'd showed up and thrust _more_ onto Sophie's plate - more for her to worry about, more for her to take care of, more for her to stay away from. If it had been any other time, she might have been happy to see them, but not now.

Not when she only had a month left. Not when things were about to break into a million pieces, never to be restored again.

They were_ ruining_ everything.

If course, Sophie knew it wasn't really their fault. They hadn't asked for this - heck, they didn't even know how they'd gotten to her time and place, to the "real world". But she still held it against them, because whether Yusuke and Co. had asked to come to her world or not, the bottom line was they _had_.

And Claire…

"What's wrong with her?"

Sophie jumped for the second time in less than an hour, turning to glare at Hiei, who was sitting right beside her, coming out of the eatery and to the park bench without making a sound - but then again, when did he ever make a sound?

Sophie thought of telling him off, of glaring at him and getting up and moving away, of saying again that there was nothing wrong with Claire, but in the end, she knew she couldn't. It wasn't for any special reason really, accept for when Hiei turned to look at her she got the sense that he really wanted to know, and not just out of curiosity.

That, and he was the only confidant she had, as strange as that sounded…

Suddenly, the road looked awfully interesting. "A month," the words came out of Sophie's mouth like molasses out of a bottle, slow. "That's how long she has."

Hiei didn't say anything, just kept staring at her. She could feel his eyes on her face, though she wasn't looking at him.

Sophie had to stop herself from crying, and it was really hard. "It's leukemia. It's a cancer, attacks blood cells and all," Sophie felt sick just saying it. "It's kind of rare for someone of her age, and it's kind of miracle she's not in the hospital yet, but still…" Sophie trailed off there, not wanting to say anymore, and not sure that Hiei would care anyway, since he was a demon, and didn't have these problems…

She hadn't been able to believe it at first. She'd thought that her mother was playing a cruel joke when she'd said Claire had leukemia, like it was April Fools day or something. But then she'd seen the test results, seen Claire go through Chemo, and then she'd started to believe it, though she hadn't really accepted it.

How could you accept that your best friend was dying?

Sophie still didn't know the answer to that question, and she tried not to think about it often, though she knew she would once the month was up - once Claire was finally gone, never to be seen or heard from again. There was no way she would survive past the month, that's what the doctors had said, and she'd believed them...and worse, Claire had believed them, too.

Only one more month...Sophie had insisted that Claire come home for that month (or, as much of the month as she could) to spend time with her adopted family. By some miracle it had happened, and now here they were, at Five Guys…

With Sophie sitting outside, on a park bench with Hiei, now crying her eyes out.

Strangely, she found that she could look at him now, even though there were tears on her face, blending in with the still falling rain - even though she couldn't decipher the look on his face. "What am I going to do?" she asked, lips trembling. "What am I…"

Hiei didn't answer, and she really didn't expect him to, but he didn't go anywhere either, and for that she was grateful…

Because at least she wasn't alone anymore.

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Hope you liked the chap! I'll be writing more soon, but the more reviews the sooner I post, so remember that!

Oh, and by the way, I'm not bashing Five Guys. I love Five Guys. And Olive Garden, for that matter.

If anyone has extra info on leukemia, then message me. I picked it because my grandma had it, but I don't know a whole whole bunch about it. I'm hoping to learn more through this, though!

See you next time. Please don't forget to review!

~Foxgirl Ray


	6. November 2nd, 29 Days Left

Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading!

**Dedicated to: **My reviewers: WistfulSin, heve-chan, forbiddenryuu, DarksAngelOfTheNight, frowninggivesyouwrinkles, DoilyRox. You are all so wonderful and I appreciate your feedback!

I had the hardest time writing this chapter...I hope you like it...it's a little sad, so you may want to keep the tissues nearby...

Enjoy the chapter!

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_November 2__nd__ (29 Days Left)_

Claire felt her hands start to shake along with the rest of her as she sat down at the Inn's piano, trying to erase the conversation she'd just heard from her mind...

She hadn't meant to eavesdrop on her new friends. She'd simply been passing the Inn's "conference room" by, and had seen that the door was slightly ajar, just enough so that she could hear voices behind it. It was the mention of her name that a piqued her interest, and she'd been extra quiet as she'd leaned against the wall outside, listening.

The conversation had been hushed and whispered, but when Yusuke had spoken up, she could hear hear him more than clearly.

"_This is all so stupid!"_ Yusuke's voice had been loud, annoyed, and...maybe even panicked?_ "We can save the world from psycho demons, win the dark tournament, get along with each other - but we can't save Claire! How messed up is that?" _

Claire had felt her heart wrench at that, immediately feeling bad.

Yusuke was beating himself up over her? Why? He hadn't even known her that long. They were friends, yes, but...This wasn't his world. He didn't have to take care of things here.

He didn't have to take care of her.

Claire had heard Koenma clear his throat, his voice sounding small. _"It isn't that simple, Yusuke…"_ he'd tried, but of course, Yusuke hadn't wanted to hear it.

"_Not that simple? Come on, binky-boy, your dad's the ruler of the freaking spirit world! There has to be something we can do!"_ Yusuke's voice had been louder that time, and Kuwabara's had echoed the sentiment, and then they'd both earned a harsh hushing...

Which had come from Kurama.

The fox's voice had been much more controlled, though Claire had sensed a disturbing sort of anger underneath. _"Despite what we want, Yusuke, Koenma is right."_ The words had made Claire's heart sink even further, landing at the bottom of her chest. _"I'm afraid we can't do anything for Claire, no matter..."_ He'd trailed off then, and Claire had detached herself from the wall, trying to be quiet as she made her getaway, though she had already been shaking...

And now here she sat, her fingers hovering just above the key's of the Inn's piano, her mind and heart racing just as much as her nerves were.

She felt _horrible_, and not just because she knew she was deseased, her body wrought with a cancer that she had never imagined she'd die of. She felt completely _horrible. _

_They want to save me. _Claire's thoughts raced in her mind. _They know they can't, but they want to save me..._

And she didn't _want_ them to.

The immediate moment that the doctor had told Claire she had leukemia, she'd been struck by fear - a fear so great and so overwhelming that for months, she hadn't been able to do anything but wallow in that fear, tossing and turning in bed at night, questioning again and again why this horrible fate had been thrust upon her. And though the fear hadn't dissipated completely, Claire didn't feel it as strongly now.

She'd been steeled against pain a long time ago, when the tragedy had happened...

Claire had been happy as a child, when her parents and brother had been alive, still breathing just as she now was. Her mother had been a stay-at-home mom, who was always cooking and cleaning and baking and making things, and she'd encouraged Claire in every sort of way, taking her to dance lessons, teaching her how to read and draw - sparking her love for the arts. And her father had been a smiling lawyer, not as backwards as some thought lawyers were, overly good at his job, always striving to take on and represent the best clients.

And Claire's brother, he'd been strong, the sports type. He'd always protected her, always made sure to spend time with her, even as he started to grow up and move on and do his own things. He'd been in his first year of college when it had happened, there on a football schollarship, though he'd been working on getting a degree in Science as well. He'd been in his first year of college...

And then everything had broken, in a matter of hours.

Claire had been over at Sophie's when it happened. She was only eight at the time, much too young to loose everything that was dear to her. Her mother and father and brother had been on their way to see a baseball game, and Claire hadn't wanted to go, so she'd insisted that they let her stay at Sophie's while they were gone. After some convincing, her mother had agreed, and the family had gone out of their way to drop her off at the Inn. Sophie and Claire had just started watching a movie when Sophie's mother had gotten the call, and had come in to tell Claire...

Her family was dead, they had told her. They'd gotten in a wreck, they had said. It had been just outside the Inn, they had whispered. Only ten minutes away, they had informed her.

But the only word that eight-year-old Claire had heard was "dead". Nothing else. No explanations. Just "dead".

Dead. Nothing else.

Just dead.

_Dead_.

Claire had moved in with Sophie and her mother a few months after that, not having any family to speak of. She'd wallowed in pain and misery for nearly half a year after that, unable to shake the nightmares that followed her family's death, and then life had gone back to normal, and she'd slowly learned to overcome the guilt and grief she felt for her family's death. She'd slowly learned to live again.

Because, after all, though they had been dead, she _hadn't. _

And life had gotten better, slowly but surely, even though the memory of her family and their death - and _her part_ in their death - had never really faded from Claire's mind. She'd still thought of them sometimes, particularly when she saw Sophie cooking, just like her mother used to, or when she'd seen the boys at school playing sports, just like her brother had...but like all memories, even the most precious one's had faded after time, sinking away into the deep recesses of Claire's mind...

And then the real blow had come-

The news of the cancer.

Claire tried to stifle the shaking of her hands as she brought herself back to the present, taking in a deep breath as she looked down at the piano keys beneath her fingertips, memorizing their smooth surfaces and off-white and off-black colors.

After her family had died, after Claire had discovered she had leukemia, music had been the one thing that had calmed and quieted her soul. It had been the only tie she had to tranquility, a thing that had been so connected to her heart, she had almost broke because of it.

Claire had always loved music, even when she was a young child. Her mother had started that. The theatre had kindled the fire of it. The cancer had kept the ember burning, turning it into a bright flame that could never be snuffed out.

Claire loved music, and so she began to play.

As the notes of the piano began to fill the room, Claire felt a presence behind her, watching, waiting. She didn't say anything as she continued to play on, waiting for her visitor to make the first move, but she couldn't stifle the sadness she felt at their presence.

She was making this so hard, on everyone. On Yusuke and his friends - even though she hadn't wanted that. Part of her wished that they had never shown up in the real world, so that they would have never had to suffer along with Sophie, so that they would never had to suffer another pain.

_Pain_. They'd had enough of that. Did they really deserve more?

Claire didn't think so. No one deserved to suffer, especially not that much.

"It really is beautiful," when Kurama spoke his voice was hushed, slightly strangled, just like it had been at the group's "meeting", though he was trying his utmost to hide it.

He was of course referring to the song.

Claire nodded once, and then stopped playing, reaching the song's end. She turned to smile up at Kurama as she scooted over on the piano seat, leaving enough room for him to sit beside her.

"Thank you," she said, before turning back to the piano, playing another song absentmindedly. "It's called '_Music of the Night'_. It was my brother's favorite. He didn't much like theatre music, but he liked that song."

Kurama sat beside her, and amazingly, it didn't seem awkward. "You had a brother?" he asked, and Claire nodded, not elaborating. "What was his name?"

Of course, the curious fox, wanting to know as much as possible - as always. Claire would have divulged him, telling him what he wanted to know, had it been any other topic, but she didn't.

She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to remember. The song had been painful enough.

So, instead, she asked: "Do you miss it?"

"Miss what, exactly?" Kurama seemed surprised by the question, though his surprise didn't last long. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and Claire stopped playing to turn and look at him, meeting his uneasiness head-on.

She couldn't blame him for being wary of her question, of course. It was simply his nature, a skill he'd learned many, many years ago. Something that never quite went away.

It must have been hard to never truly trust anyone.

Claire's hands were shaking again, though not from fear or sickness. "The demon world," she said, as though it were obvious. "I mean...do you miss being like...you were...before?" the words didn't sound right, coming from her mouth, but she knew by the glint in Kurama's eyes that he knew what she was asking.

She knew that he understood that she was asking him if he missed his life before he'd become "human". If he missed living on the demon plane, being who he'd been before he'd learned what he knew now.

Claire of course had thought about it many times. Neither the manga or the anime had really explained Kurama's feelings completely, and though she didn't expect him to open up and tell her everything, she expected that maybe a direct question might make him give her a direct answer...

And keep him from asking her about what she'd heard at the "meeting" for just a little while longer.

Claire knew she'd been quiet while eavesdropping, but she had no doubt that her newly-found friends had heard her - especially Kurama and Hiei. She was sure that Koenma, or Yusuke, or _someone_ had asked Kurama to come and talk to her, find out what she was thinking, since he could pry information out of anyone like no one else could. Or maybe he had come himself...but, either way...

She didn't want to talk about her feelings just yet. She needed some sort of exchange first. Something to get the conversation going.

And what better than this?

"Sometimes," when the word flew out of Kurama's mouth, Claire jumped, having been deep in her thoughts. Then she shivered, because though it was simple, the word was fierce, final. "I do miss it sometimes, in some ways," when Claire looked into his eyes she could tell that he was telling her the truth, though there was a lot of parenthesis behind it, things he would never say aloud. "But enough about me, what about you?"

Of course. Here it was. The therapy session.

Claire looked back down at the piano, wanting to speak before he did.

"You don't have to do that, you know," she said, and once again her words seemed to surprise Kurama.

Though only for an instant. "Do what?" he asked, sincerely confused, though he tried not to show it. "Elaborate," it wasn't a request.

Claire felt a small smile grace her face as she looked back up at him again, her fingers twitching on the piano keys. "Try and make me feel better," she said, and then her smile turned into a frown, and she looked back down again. "It doesn't suit you, to be so nice. Not that I'm saying your not nice, only...You don't have to pretend," she felt her fists tighten, the music cut off as her hands hit all the wrong keys. "I don't expect you to save me."

And she didn't, either. Truth be told, she didn't _want_ to be saved. Not by anyone.

Claire had decided that she would accept her fate a few months after she'd found out about the cancer, once she'd decided that she was tired of living in fear - tired of letting the dark emotion eat away at her, stealing the life she had left. From then on she'd stopped going to the doctor's prescribed bouts of therapy, of Chemo, deciding that when it was her time to go, it would be her time to go, and that when she went, she wouldn't be feeling pain anymore, which she was almost looking forward to.

It wasn't to say that Claire didn't want to live, she just knew that, unless a miracle happened, she would die in less than a month's time. And she was okay with that. _Really_. It had made her see and remember what was really important, not take things for granted...

So she didn't want Yusuke and his friends to save her. She didn't want them to even try. They had done enough as it was - maybe not here, but back in their own world, certainly. And...

_I feel sorry for them. _Claire realized, sneaking a glance at Kurama, who was watching her but not watching her, his mind wrapping around what she'd said. _I feel _so_ sorry for them. _

Yusuke and his friends had it rough, rougher than anyone wanted to realize. They were constantly facing hardships, constantly going through turmoil, never getting a break. And even when they did get a break, they were stuck with the memories and worries of what they'd been through, which would haunt them in ways that no one would ever know.

They were always having to save someone or something, do a task that seemed impossible, or was heartbreaking. They may not have shown their pain on the outside - Yusuke was a joker, Kuwabara a sidekick, Hiei a loner, and Kurama a silent but deadly ticking time-bomb - but it was there, closer to the surface than anyone realized.

Claire had seen it, when she'd first laid eyes on the motley group. In real life, when they weren't on TV or in a book, Yusuke and Co. looked a lot different. A lot more real. A lot more broken. A lot more-

"Tired," the word formed in Claire's mouth, and she spoke it before she could even think. "Your tired..." she turned back towards Kurama, looking him in the eye. "...aren't you? Of saving everybody, I mean," she added that last bit as a whisper.

The glimmer in Kurama's eyes seemed to dim as he stared back at her, his eyes saying a thousand, complicated things that his mouth could not. Claire tried to focus and decipher what those things were - what those green eyes of his were secretly trying to tell her - but her mind just couldn't keep up, and she understood very little.

But she did understand _something. _

She was right about Yusuke and his friends, she could see that, plainer than ever, in Kurama's eyes. They were tired of fighting, and she didn't blame them. Even though they were so used to it, even though half (well, more than half, really) of them were demons, even though it seemed like they lived off the brawl, there was still a breaking point, a point when everything that they did began to seem useless, like they weren't really fighting for anything at all...

_"We can save the world from psycho demons, win the dark tournament, get along with each other - but we can't save Claire!" _

Yusuke's words rung through Claire's head, and she felt her heart ache even more.

It just wasn't fair, what she was doing to everyone. She knew she couldn't control it, knew she hadn't asked for any of it - for the cancer to grow, for her new friends to end up in her world, for her best friend to be torn apart - but somehow, she had caused it all the same. Just like she'd caused her family's death.

But...

_There has to be something I can do. _Despite the fact that she had a heavy heart, Claire refused to give up, something her circumstances had taught her. _Though it may not be much, there has to be _something_ I can do. _

Maybe Yusuke and his friends had ended up in her world for a reason. Maybe, though she couldn't erase their pain or ease their suffering, there was something that she could do. Maybe what they needed wasn't a break from pain - since they were (probably) going to see her die - but a taste of reality. A taste of what normal life was like, without demons, or world destruction, or death, or -

But what about Sophie? There was still nothing Claire could do for her. When she died, Sophie would be all alone, left to face the emptiness by herself. She wouldn't have a friend in the world without Claire. She would have no confidant, no one to help her or support her through her life. No one to rely on.

Unless...

Claire nearly jumped as she felt a hand on her cheek, brushing away the tears she didn't know she'd been shedding. "Please, don't cry," Kurama's voice was strangely soft, and this time, the tone didn't sound fake. "It's alright."

Claire blinked as she looked up at the kitsune again, wondering how he sounded so sure of himself. Wondering if, maybe, he'd seen just as much feeling when he'd looked into her eyes as she had when she'd looked into his...

If that were the case, the two shared a connection now. Nothing romantic or incredible, just an understanding between the two. Something that couldn't be easily obtained.

"I'm afraid..." the words came out of Claire's mouth as choked, and she reached for Kurama without even thinking about it, admitting something to him that she hadn't even fully admitted to herself. "I know I've accepted it...I know I shouldn't feel this way...that it seems selfish...but..." she couldn't hide the truth, even from herself, because no matter how brave she acted, or what she said she felt, it was still the truth...

The room seemed to get darker as lightening flashed outside, and Claire looked out the window, more tears on her face, still desperately clinging.

"I don't _want_ to die."

* * *

Well...there you have it...

So, comments on this, anyone? Was it too depressing? Was it not depressing enough (ha ha)? Is Kurama OOC at all? Did you like it?

Next chapter will be a big one, introducing a new character...who shall remain anonymous for the time being. It will be from Sophie's POV, and you'll get to see a little bit more of her personality, as well as some of her back-story. Should be fun!

Anywho, I hope you liked it! Please review, and I'll see you next time!

~Foxgirl Ray


	7. November 3rd, 28 Days Left

_Hello, everyone! _

_As promised, this is a longer chapter...much longer. I hope you enjoy it. It isn't as heartbreaking as the last few, but it still has its drama. _

_**Dedicated to:** DoilyRox, heve-chan, and DarksAngelOfTheNight. Thank you all! I really appreciate your reviews! _

_Again, enjoy!_

* * *

_November 3rd (28 Days Left)_

Sophie felt the grip on her pencil tightened as she tried to concentrate on the words in the book in front of her - the words that kept blurring, turning strange, dark colors, reminding her of blood, dripping down the page.

She just couldn't stop thinking about it. It just wouldn't leave her mind alone. No matter what she did, the scene wouldn't stop playing in her mind, though it was different every time...

Sophie knocking on Claire's door, getting no answer, walking in to find her friend's body cold and dead.

Claire suddenly passing out, having a seizure, heart giving out.

Sophie sitting at the hospital, all alone, the doctors coming her way with grim faces.

And...

The last was the worst. The last was the one she could barely bare to think of, the most gruesome. It contained blood and shaking and pain. It contained things that Sophie didn't want to think of, to visualize.

How was she going to get through this?

Sophie dropped her pen as her hands started to shake, staring at them for a moment, like they didn't belong to her. She tried to silence the shaking as she put her face in her hands, to weigh them down, but it didn't work, and she only shook worse, all over now.

_Twenty-eight days... _The words rung in Sophie's mind like a curse. _At the most... _

Would Claire even make it to twenty-eight days? Would she even last that long? There was no guarantee. The doctors hadn't been sure - couldn't be sure. All they could do was guess. And what if they were wrong?

What if it wasn't twenty-eight days, but ten? Or five? Or two? Or -

Sophie shut her eyes again, unable to bare it.

"One."

Sophie's throat nearly closed in on her when she heard the voice, and she looked up, knowing exactly who it was.

Of course. Why did he always seem to show up just when she didn't want to see him?

Sophie blinked at him, trying to be nonchalant as she hid her shaking hands underneath the desk she sat at. "What did you say?" she asked, feinting obliviousness, though she had heard him more than clearly.

"_One"_, he'd said, as in: "_Maybe Claire only has one day left"._ He'd been listening to her thoughts...

Again.

Sophie couldn't help but feel angry at that, though she knew there was nothing she could do about it, no way to block him from her mind. She wasn't an OC in a fanfiction story, who suddenly had weird powers, able to do all sorts of amazing things though it was completely unlikely. She was just normal, normal and miserable...

Mostly miserable, though.

Hiei didn't even blink as he answered her. "You heard me," he said, echoing just what Sophie had been thinking, making her glare. "You know what I meant," he grimaced, obviously thinking her attempt at being oblivious was pretty pathetic.

"Well maybe I wouldn't know what you meant if _you _would stay _out _of my _head_!" Sophie snapped back, and Hiei didn't even flinch, so she looked back at the book she'd been reading, ignoring him, her hands now balling into fists underneath the desk.

She was finding more and more reasons to wish that Yusuke and his friends had never shown up in her world - apart from them ruining her life and getting in the way. And this was one of them: she had to put up with Hiei, who, though he was technically her favorite character, was being very annoying right now.

Sophie found it strangely easy to ignore Hiei as she tried again to concentrate on her book, though she knew he was still there, could still feel his presence in the room. Maybe it was so easy to ignore him because he was so quiet - she couldn't even hear him _breathing_, for goodness sake! - or maybe it was because her mind was too focused on other things, the page in front of her starting to turn to blood again, the words mingling with one another, running every which way.

Sophie tried to swallow the lump in her throat as she concentrated harder, her fingernails digging into her palms beneath the desk. But it was no use. No matter what she did, the words simply wouldn't return to normal. No matter what she did, all she could think about was Claire, and -

Sophie looked up, finding Hiei's eyes immediately. "Stop watching me!" she growled, glaring at him again.

She didn't want him to know why she was upset. She wanted him to think that she was only rigid because he was there, staring at her, and not because of Claire, and the monstrosities that kept playing in her mind, over and over. Of course, she was sure he knew the _real _reason she was upset, since he didn't seem to want to stay out of her mind, but she could keep up the image of being upset over annoyance at least...

Plus, she doubted he cared much, anyway...if at all...

_Probably not at all... _Sophie grimaced, waiting for Hiei to answer her. _I'm just a human, and this must seem all so trivial. My life is nothing like his..._

Not that she was complaining about that.

"What makes you think I was watching you?" when Hiei spoke, he seemed offended, but only a little bit.

Sophie wanted to roll her eyes. "Well, what else were you staring at? The wall?" she knew she sounded sarcastic, but she didn't care.

Hiei didn't reply. He simply glared at her before looking away, down at the book she had on her desk, the book who's words refused to behave.

_One point for the human. _Sophie couldn't help but thinking, smiling slightly, the edges of her mouth curving up, making her smile look more like a smirk.

"What are you doing?" Sophie's thoughts were interrupted quickly, and she blinked again, realizing Hiei was still staring at the book.

Sophie sighed, hating that she had to explain everything. But then again, she'd never seen Hiei so curious about anything before, so she guessed she couldn't complain. At least he was asking her questions, and not trying to kill her.

That, and the conversation was keeping her mind from wandering back to her disturbing thoughts...

Sophie sighed. "It's homework. For college," she replied, casting an annoyed glance at her evil book. "But I guess you wouldn't know much about that, since you never went to school..."

Hiei looked back up at her, glaring. "Demons don't need school," he said, voice vehement, and..._something else_...something Sophie couldn't quite recognize...

Sophie's eyebrows furrowed as she stared back at him, a thought suddenly occuring to her -

She'd never really thought about it before now, but it was true - demons didn't need school. In fact, they didn't need a lot of things that humans did...well, they didn't _have _them, anyway...

How strange it must have been to live in the Demon World, where all you were worried about was not getting killed. There would be no use for anything that Sophie saw and relied on regularly. No schools to learn in, no jobs to speak of really. Nothing. Just running for your life and hoping you lived to see the next day.

_It sounds... _Sophie sincerely hoped that Hiei wasn't listening to her now. _...boring. _

Sure, it might have been kind of exciting to run around and fight, to prove that you were better than everyone else, but after a while it would have gotten old. Tiresome. Doing the same thing, over and over - and what a thing to do! mess up once, and it's all over! - would have been the worst. At least in the human world, Sophie knew she had some options. At least in the human world, she knew she was safe.

Oh..._Safe_...Another thing to think about.

Sophie felt a strange weight weigh on her as she thought this, realizing, for the first time, that she felt sorry for Hiei (though she certainly wasn't going to tell _him _that).

How horrible it must have been, to live in a world where nothing was certain, where you were always worried for your safety. Sure, Sophie knew that things like that happened in her world too, to some people, but not to her. She had to worry about things like paying bills, and getting good grades in school, and finding a job, but she didn't have to worry about her _life. _She wasn't up every night, hoping that someone wasn't going to come and kill her. She wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder, hoping no one was there to run her through.

But Hiei was. And Kurama. And Yusuke, and Kuwabara. They all were, to varying degrees, some more than others (such as Hiei, of course, and Kurama, even though he didn't live in the Demon World anymore). It was what they were used to. It was what life had given to them, and, thinking of it this way, Sophie was beginning to think that she had the better end of the string.

Okay, so she wasn't strong and powerful. She probably couldn't even snap a tree branch in half without getting out the chainsaw. But at least she actually got to enjoy her life. At least she wasn't _afraid _of it.

Sophie blinked again, and realized that Hiei was still staring at her, a strange look on his face now.

Not to say that Yusuke and his friends weren't strong, because they were. They had faced things she would have never been able to face. If Sophie had been in their position, she would have opted out a long time ago. Her new friends had seen brutal fights, brutal deaths...and she was having a hard enough time trying to come to terms with Claire's prospect of dying a normal, human death. It was nothing compared to them - especially Hiei, goodness knows he'd seen enough death to last five lifetimes.

But...even so...Sophie preferred being who she was, where she was. She wouldn't have wanted to switch. She wouldn't have wanted a life like that.

Which made her wonder...did _they_ really want it?

It was the snapping shut of her book that brought Sophie from her thoughts, and she looked down, realizing that Hiei had closed the large, college textbook, his hand still on it.

"Your wasting your time, you know," when he spoke, his voice was dead-set, his eyes strangely and unfailingly serious.

Sophie felt kind of dizzy looking up at him, and those strange eyes of his. They were just so...overwhelming. "For...what...?" she barely got the words out, kind of unable to think coherently.

Hiei looked almost indecicive for a moment, before his eyes gleamed strangely again, and Sophie got the impression that he was about to answer her, when -

Sophie jumped when she heard a loud, blaring sound, echoing through the air around her.

"What the heck was that!" she turned to look at the window, the strangeness of eye contact with Hiei temporary gone. "What..." she trailed off as she looked back at him.

He was staring now, at what she couldn't tell, his head cocked slightly, as if he were listening for something (which, he probably was). He stayed like that for a moment before he grimaced in disgust, and then looked at Sophie, eyes blazing.

"Someone's here to see you," he said, not sounding too happy about it.

Sophie stared at him in confusion for a moment before she heard it:

A yell.

Coming from outside.

Just as angry as could be.

"SOPHIE!" It said. "GET OUT HERE, YOU -"

Sophie sighed as a string of profanity followed, and she finally stood from her desk, hiding her nail-scarred hands in her jeans pockets, hoping that they had stopped bleeding. She glanced at Hiei, who was glaring at the window murderously, obviously knowing something she didn't, before she turned towards the door to head downstairs.

"Oh, great," she said, the voice from outside echoing again, suddenly feeling sick. "Like I don't have enough problems as it is..."

* * *

Sophie and Hiei were down the stairs a moment later, the latter faster than the forementioned, of course.

Sophie was shocked to see all of her new friends (Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Botan and Keiko) standing in the living room, various confused expressions on their faces, all looking out the windows. She pushed Yusuke aside as she neared the front window, drawing the curtains back just as he had done, only a little bit less conspiciously.

"Who's out there?" the question came from none other than Yusuke, who was looking annoyed at the moment. "Who's being so loud?" Sophie wanted to laugh at that, considering who was talking.

But she didn't. She didn't even answer him as she stared out the window at the figure who was in her front yard, making all sorts of noise, standing next to a particularly expensive Ferrari. The figure wasn't particularly tall or menacing, but when Sophie saw him she suddenly felt faint, her sick feeling increasing, filling her up to the brim.

She really didn't want to have to deal with this...

Not now.

"_Well_?" Yusuke sounded even more annoyed now, and Kuwabara was right behind him, frowning as he looked out the window along with Sophie. "Who's the jerk with the million-dollar car?"

Sophie found herself mute, unable to speak. Maybe if she closed her eyes and wished hard enough, the man outside would go away, cease to exist. Maybe...

She tried it, and it didn't work. He was still there, yelling, screaming, making a ruckus.

"It's Sophie's rich, abusive ex-boyfriend," the words came from Claire, answering Yusuke's question, and the air in the living room seemed to charge with electricity.

Sophie turned from the window to glare at her friend, embarassed. "Wow, Claire, how did you manage to get all of that in one sentence?" she asked hotly, feeling her cheeks burn.

It was a moment before her friend seemed to realized what she'd said, and when it came to her, Claire gasped, hand flying to her mouth. The two stared at each other for a moment before Sophie broke eye contact, sighing.

She knew that Claire hadn't mean any harm in what she'd said, but...the last thing she wanted her friends to know about was this - this embarassing thing! This thing...that she'd never wanted.

She had never asked for Neil to come around. It had just sort of happened. And when it had happened, there had been no stopping it. She hadn't wanted to date him, not at all, but she'd had to, because otherwise -

"Um..." it was Yusuke's voice again, somehow quiet now, that broke through Sophie's thoughts. "Claire said '_abusive_', right? Doesn't that mean...like, hitting people and stuff?" he turned to look at Sophie, but she wouldn't meet his gaze, once again looking out the window.

Instead, it was Kurama who answered him, voice cold as ice. "That is generally what the term means, Yusuke," he said, and Sophie felt herself shiver.

Great, now they were involved in this whole mess! Another reason for her to wish they were gone, that they had never showed up in the first place! Did she really need any more reasons to wish that she was just alone?

"I'll go talk to him," when Sophie said the words, they sounded like a death sentence. "I'll be right back," she started for the door, but both Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped her.

"You can't go out there!" Kuwabara was frantic, fighting with Yusuke for a chance to block the door.

"Yeah!" Yusuke echoed, shoving his friend to the side. "After what Claire said...I mean..." he paled slightly as she glared at him, tired of this game. "I should go punch his lights out!"

Sophie stiffened at that, everything in her fighting the urge to say "yes, please do".

She couldn't let Neil get hurt, no matter how much she wanted to pound him into the ground, seal his fate along with the rest of the murdered world. If he were to get hurt, then it would come back on her and everyone she cared about, and that was simply something she couldn't let happen. No matter what her family had supposedly done, she couldn't let them get hurt because of her...

That was the game that was played. That was the way it had always been played. And that was the way it would continue to be.

Sophie felt that, somehow, Yusuke understood what she was feeling, though she didn't say anything about her reasons for going outside against better judgement. She saw the fire in his eyes slacken just a bit as he sighed, but he still didn't move.

That she had to make him do on her own.

"I'll be right back," Sophie repeated, gently pushing him out of the way. "Honestly, I will..." at least she could guarantee that.

Neil may have been one of the worst scum-bags on the earth, but he would never hurt her enough to kill her.

Sophie took in a deep breath to steel herself as she heard the door close behind her, knowing that her friends would be at the windows any second now, watching, if they weren't already. She was surprised by their actions, figuring that they wouldn't have agreed to her going it alone, but...

She was glad that no one had insisted to come out with her as she walked over to Neil, who had stopped shouting now, seeing her, though some small part of her wished that she had backup, even though the greater part of her still wished that they weren't there at all.

No matter what happened, she couldn't stop wishing that, even if it was wrong of her. Her life was just too complicated as it was, and no matter how much she may have wanted to, she doubted that she would ever be able to let go and just relax, just took things as they came, and really get to know Yusuke and his friends...

Even though she really, _really_ wanted to...

"Sophie," Neil straightened a little when he saw her, his blazing blue eyes landing on her face. "Finally. I thought you'd never come out of that trash-heap. Why'd you keep me waiting?" his hard face seemed to glare at her as she neared him, and she made sure to stay a few steps away, out of swinging distance.

Neil actually hadn't been that bad of a guy when they'd first been dating, though she'd never really liked him, only agreeing to the date because she'd been forced to. He'd been nice enough at first, taking her to fancy places, driving in fancy cars, but then...well, then he'd stopped caring about keeping up appearances, knowing it didn't matter anyway, and suddenly everything had changed, all for the worst.

But she hadn't stopped it. Not right away, anyway. She'd put up with most of the beatings for a while, not saying anything, wanting to keep up the illusion that things were alright, so no one would get hurt.

But eventually, she'd gotten sick of it, hadn't cared if everyone in the known universe were mad at her or not. She'd finally let go, had run away and escaped for a while, and she'd been happy...

Until now.

_I should have known he'd come back soon. _Sophie thought as she glared at Neil, not daring to answer him, knowing it wasn't worth it, that she just wanted him to go away. She would wait until he got the hint, knew that she wasn't going to answer him, before she told him to leave. _I should have known... _

She'd only just gotten away from him a few weeks ago, right before Yusuke and his friends had appeared at the Inn. She'd only just gotten rid of her bruises, just before they'd shown up. It had been perfect timing, really...or horrible timing, depending on how you looked at it...

"Not going to answer, huh?" Neil laughed at Sophie's silence, cursing under his breath. "I always knew you were a stupid bitch, but I didn't think you were that dumb. Guess I was wrong," he laughed again, before suddenly he grew angry, face harder than ever. "Why don't you answer me!" he yelled, taking a step forward, and -

Sophie saw the images flash before her eyes - all the others times he'd hit her - as his fist grew closer, and she struggled to breathe, and then -

Neil gasped as Sophie heard a strange crack, and she opened her eyes, seeing what had happened, though she couldn't quite believe it.

Hiei was taller than he'd looked in the anime, though still shorter than his friends, and even Neil. But somehow, at that moment he looked ten times taller than Sophie's abusive ex-boyfriend, as he glared murderously at him, throwing his crumpled hand aside like it was nothing. Sophie watched in breathless shock as Neil writhed on the ground for a moment, Hiei's firey eyes boring into him, wanting to cause much more pain than that.

"Leave," the word was a harsh command, secretly seething on the inside, and Sophie had to wonder just what it was that Hiei had heard Neil thinking. "Now."

Neil didn't have to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet in a rush, looking decidedly sloppy as he tried to get up, cradling his now probably broken (if not crushed) hand, glaring pathetically as he sputtered to himself, probably still trying to figure out what had happened. He climbed into his car a moment later, still sputtering and now shaking, and drove off, leaving the shocked Sophie alone with the still glaring Hiei.

Sophie was just as shocked as Neil had been, but when she turned to say something to Hiei, suddenly she couldn't find anything to say. He was still staring after Neil's car, looking both parts vengeful and both parts regretful (probably that he didn't just kill the git and get it over with). Sophie felt her hands start to shake again, just like earlier, as she stared at him.

She just didn't understand. None of this made sense. How could it have been happening? It couldn't have been real!

Claire was dying, would be dead in less than a month, leaving her alone.

Neil was back to his old tricks, coming around again, and he would never let her go.

Her mother was oblivious as always, still doing what she always did, never stopping to think of what was best for others.

Her favorite characters from the Yu Yu Hakusho world were living at her mother's Inn, staying in the very same house that she was.

And...

Sophie suddenly felt strange, so many confusing and overwhelming emotions swirling inside her. The light started to flicker before her eyes as Hiei turned towards her, looking more calm now, about to say something, and -

Sophie felt all of the life rush out of her then, starting at the top of her head, landing at the tip of her toes, making her feel cold, adding to her decaying sense of sight. She tried to open up her mouth to say something, but the words simply wouldn't come, and all hearing was cut off as she suddenly lost control, crippling to the ground.

* * *

_In case your wondering, yes, that is an accurate description of fainting. It is not fun...at all... _

_Well, now we have another great fact of reality: bad boyfriends! Everyone who wants Hiei to kill Neil, raise your hand! (raises hand) More to come on Neil later. He'll make another comeback, and we'll see more about his "relationship" with Sophie, and why it happened..._

_Another note on Neil: Yes, he likes to curse. Sorry about that. There will be a little more language in the future. Normally, I don't agree with language (I think it just sounds horrible, and that it's completely overrated), but it fits his character. So, there will be more, to let you know, but not too much... _

_ I don't know when I'll get to write again. I'm pretty sick this week, and only posted this because I already had it done. But as soon as I'm better, I'll be writing again (and that goes for my other story, "Brokenness", too!)..._

_PLEASE REVIEW! I hope you enjoyed!  
_


	8. November 3rd, 28 Days Left, Part Two

Hello, everyone! I'm back!

**Dedicated to: **doilyrox, and heve-chan. Thank you, my wonderful reviewers!

* * *

_November 3rd (28 Days Left), Part Two_

"SOPHIE!"

The name seemed to ring in Claire's ears as her legs carried her forward, her breathing already tight and erratic, but it wasn't until she was at her best friend's side that she realized the horrible shriek had come from her own mouth.

"SOPHIE!"

Claire was horrorstruck by how desperate and pained her own voice sounded, how strangled, but that didn't - and couldn't - match the horror she felt at seeing her best friend, lying on the ground, ashen-faced.

"SOPHIE!"

Claire knew she heard other's voices behind her, knew she heard their footsteps and felt their hands reach out to grasp her, but she didn't care. All she could see was her friend on the ground, unfair...

"Sophie...?"

It wasn't fair. This shouldn't have been happening. She was supposed to be the one in pain.

"Claire?" Claire had to blink before the voice floated over to her, and she looked up, knowing who it belonged to. It was Kurama, of course, crouched down on the other side of her friend like he was about to examine her, though his eyes were on Claire, steady as could be. "Go back inside, please. You shouldn't be out here." Claire had to blink another time before she caught the full sentence, the words not making sense.

Inside? How could he ask her to go _inside_? Sophie had just fainted! She may have needed help! How could he ask her to -

Realization hit as Claire felt herself wheel backwards, landing in Yusuke's ready arms. Her head began to swim as she saw sparks dance before her eyes, her breathing even more erratic than before.

Of course. Sophie may have been the one in pain, wrongfully, but _she _was the one who was sick.

"Don't worry," Kurama offered her a small smile as Yusuke hoisted her to her feet. "I'll take good care of her." Claire cast the unconscious Sophie another glance before she nodded, believing him.

She couldn't afford to not trust him now. Kurama and his friends may have been the only hope she had left, the only way she could still save what was most dear.

Claire tried to steady her breathing as Yusuke shouldered one of her arms, and Kuwabara shouldered the other (Yusuke complaining the whole time that he could have just carried her, and Claire telling him that no, she wanted to walk herself). Feeling strangely mortified by the help, Claire managed to wobble back to the Inn, casting one last glance back at Sophie.

Kurama was examining her face now, and Hiei was standing near, a strange expression on his face...and it just wasn't fair...

_I'm the one who's supposed to be in pain. _Claire thought again, tears springing to her eyes. _I'm the one, not Sophie..._

Claire felt a sob escape her lips as she landed on the couch inside the front room, friends staring at her sadly.

It just wasn't fair.

How had this happened?

She hadn't meant for it to be like this.

She hadn't -

Claire locked eyes with the hands clasped in her lap, shoulders shaking, feeling eight years old again.

_"I'm the one who's supposed to be in pain...not Sophie..." _

_

* * *

_

Yes, I'm aware this chapter was very, very short. I just happened to really like it this way, and Claire is so shocked I just couldn't think of putting her through anymore. Next chapter will be as normal, longer.

Thank you again to my reviewers, and sorry this took so long. I've been very sick, and I'm still getting over it, so I don't know when we'll see another chapter. Hopefully soon...

Hope you enjoyed it! PLEASE REVIEW!

~Foxgirl Ray


	9. November 4th, 27 Days Left

Hello everyone! I'm back again, with another, longer chapter.

**Dedicated to: **heve-chan, my only reviewer! Thank you tons. I think you'll like this chapter. XD

Enjoy!

* * *

_November 4th (27 Days Left)_

_"Claire!" _

Sophie could hear the scream, though she wasn't sure where it was coming from. It sounded oddly close, though strangely far away, as if it were echoing through her mind.

_"Claire, come back!" _

Sophie felt her head pound as she tried to open her eyes, feeling groggy and sick at the same time. Her eyes were met with darkness at first, and she gasped, not sure what to do, but after a few seconds light started to appear, melting into a picture.

The picture was small at first, distorted, like it wasn't real, but then it grew bigger, stretching to the edges of her vision as the blurs became less and less prominent. As Sophie blinked the picture came into focus, and she could see trees, winding all around her, stretching out from the paved road she stood on. The picture before her turned grey around the edges, as if it were old, as the sky above her rumbled...

And that's when Sophie noticed it - there _wasn't _a sky above her.

_"Claire, come on! Where are you!" _

Sophie blinked, realizing the voice was hers, though not hers, spawning from a small little girl who was in the picture before her, standing on the paved road, looking distressed.

_"Come on, Claire! This isn't funny!" _

The girl was young, but not so young, maybe nine at the most. She wore a simple pair of jean shorts and a plaid shirt, looking quite the Country hick. Her blonde hair was curly and pulled back from her face, stuffed onto a ponytail with ends hanging out, and her feet were stuck in soggy sneakers that looked like they'd seen better days.

Sophie was about to call out to the girl, ask her what the heck was going on, and how she knew Claire, when the girl suddenly turned around, and Sophie gasped.

_It's me. _She realized, staring into the girls face, which took all of her Country hick looks away. _That girl, it's me. _

The face of the girl before her wasn't as old or as pretty as Sophie's, but it was her face none the less. The girl's bright blue eyes were piercing, like frost, and there was a look of raw and cold determination on her face...overshadowed a bit by fear.

_"Claire..." _The girl said one last time, before turning back the way she'd come, racing off down the paved street.

Sophie watched her go, never losing sight of her, because even though she wasn't moving her feet, she kept pace with the girl, as if her younger self were just a movie that she was watching.

The girl eventually stopped, and Sophie felt a stab run through her heart, seeing the picture now displayed before her.

There was a car, wrecked to bits, sitting on the side of the road. There were police and firemen and a few ambulances, the street so crowded she could barely see as her younger self pushed through the men surrounding the car, still shouting Claire's name. There were paramedics and people - three people, torn open to a bloody mess, barely even alive, being pulled from the car...

And, last but not least, there was one brown haired girl, shaking and crying as she stared at the mess.

_"Claire?" _Sophie's younger self finally reached her friend, laying a shaking hand on the girl's shoulder, and Sophie could feel the pain and the agony and the sickness her younger self felt. _"You..." _

But Sophie's younger self lost all of her words as Claire turned towards her, just as young as she was, tears streaming down her lonesome face - the face of an angel, which shouldn't have been crying. She wore clothes similar to Sophie, only they were tattered, like she'd been running through a forest of vines, her ankles bleeding above her shoes. But that didn't compare to the look of despair in her brown eyes, the look that took the breath from Sophie's younger double.

_"Their dead." _Younger Claire sounded too calm, almost inhuman. _"My family, their all...dead." _

Younger Sophie staggered back, and older Sophie tried to keep herself from crying, feeling a tremble travel up her spine.

Why was she seeing this? She had never wanted to relive it, so why was she doing so now? It just wasn't fair...

She was about to lose her best friend, why should she be reminded of what her friend had already lost?

"When did it happen?"

Sophie felt herself stiffen as she heard the voice, coming from behind her, before another shiver traveled up her spine, one most unlike the other. She closed her eyes for a moment, steeling herself, before she turned around, knowing exactly who would be there.

Of course, no matter where she went - even in her own mind- he always seemed to be there somehow.

Why was that?

Sophie pursed her lips as her eyes landed on Hiei, who wasn't even looking at her, instead surveying the scene behind her, which was still playing out. Sophie felt another shiver as she realized that everything around them - besides the gruesome picture - was black, like they'd suddenly been sucked up, into a space with no stars.

She didn't answer Hiei's question, but instead asked one of her own.

"What are you doing here?" her voice sounded strangled, tired, and Sophie felt her shoulders slump, weighing in on her.

Hiei didn't answer for a moment. He simply continued to stare at the scene behind her, brows furrowing, before his red eyes flicked over to her, and Sophie had to rebuild her backbone with iron to keep from shivering. "I'm watching," he said, as though it were completely obvious.

And, Sophie supposed, it kind of was.

"Watching..." Sophie digested the word, thinking that it seemed that Hiei was always watching her, a thought which she didn't really appreciate or like. "But how did you -"

Her sentence was cut off as she heard a gasp from behind her, and she half-turned back towards the gruesome picture, knowing exactly what would happen next.

She remembered it. She'd been there, the day that Claire's family had died.

The younger Sophie had stepped away from the nearly-inhuman Claire now, her mouth gaping open at her friend's behavior. She stared at the younger Claire for a moment, looking horrified for once in her young life, before she suddenly lost it, crippling to the ground, much as Sophie had done herself that afternoon...or, whenever that was...

A sentence followed in her wake, as the picture faded, threatening to leave Sophie and Hiei in darkness.

_"I'm the one who's supposed to be in pain..." _It said to no one. _"...not Sophie." _

Sophie tried to keep the tears from her eyes as the world around her grew darker and darker, still feeling her younger self's pain and sorrow, but as she turned back to Hiei, she felt nothing but anger.

What was he doing there, anyway? These were her memories, her crosses to bear, why should _he_ see them? He was a demon, for goodness sake! He had killed thousands, maybe even millions of people without a seconds thought! He didn't care anything about what went on in Sophie's life! And if he was just watching her because he found her pain amusing, she was going to - to -

Well, she didn't know what she'd do, but she'd find something!

Sophie met Hiei's gaze as the darkness continued to close in on them, refusing to back down. She was sure he'd heard what she'd been thinking, was sure he knew her complaints about him, but she didn't care. Him and his friends had invaded _her_ _life_, and she was tired of trying to step around them.

However, as the last flickerings of light faded from the room, Hiei didn't seem fazed. He didn't even move, holding her stare with those intense eyes of his, which Sophie couldn't help but think were eerily beautiful, even if their owner was irritatingly infuriating...

And then, the light was gone, and Sophie was left in darkness, fear and other strange emotions clawing at her stomach, though she tried to fight them.

"Well," Hiei's voice stated, from much-too-close by. "I think it's time you woke up now."

* * *

Sophie's eyes shot open immediately, and she felt instantly rigid, the last remainders of her dream flickering before her eyes.

Had that really happened? Had Hiei really invaded her mind while she was sleeping? Or had it been...well, just a dream?

Sophie didn't know, but her heart was pounding in her ears, and as she sat up, her head swimming, she looked around for traces of her oh-so-annoying visitor, who wasn't there for once. She felt herself sigh as she saw an empty room, mostly relieved, though a little let-down, too.

She'd been hoping he was there so she could yell at him, tell him to stay out of her head, even if it was the last thing she did.

"Sophie? Are you up? I missed you, honey!" Sophie felt herself groan as the door to wherever she was staying banged open, and her mother entered, nearly knocking her over in a hug. "You were out for nearly a day, and I was _soooo_ worried!" Sophie noticed her mother had a new handbag slung over her shoulder as the woman drew back, nearly in tears.

Kurama poked his head in through the door. "Sorry," he said, smiling almost sheepishly. "I stepped out for a moment, and, well..." he cast Sophie's nearly-crying mother a glance.

"Were you _watching_ me?" Sophie felt herself frown, annoyed with this development. "Where's Claire?"

Kurama held up his hands in surrender. "We were taking turns watching over you, if you must know," he said, before sighing. "I'll go get Claire..." and then he was gone.

Sophie didn't have time to watch him go, and she didn't really want to, now much too upset.

A day! She'd been out a _day_! That meant that she only had 27 days left! That was -

_Not enough time. _Suddenly, Sophie felt panicked, pushing her covers aside and standing to her feet, her mother barely managing to catch her as she wobbled a bit. _Not enough time at all. _

She couldn't believe she'd wasted a whole stupid day, and all because of that idiot Neil and his cruel jokes! Why had he decided to show up, and ruin her last chance to be with her best friend? Why couldn't he just go away?

Why couldn't they _all_ just go away?

"Sophie?" her mother's voice was confused, sounding higher than normal. "Sophie, dear, what's wrong?" Sophie almost wanted to glare at her, knowing that her concern was all fake, but she just couldn't.

She was much too angry now, the strong emotion transferring over from her dream to reality.

Why couldn't they just leave? Why couldn't her and Claire have peace? Why did everything have to be so complicated? It wasn't supposed to be like this.

They weren't supposed to have interfered. No one was. She was supposed to be able to spend time with her best friend, all alone, until the day she died, and then...

Sophie blinked.

And then...

And then what? What was she going to do once Claire was gone? She hadn't thought of anything, and she almost didn't want to. It seemed like life wouldn't even matter anymore once Claire was dead.

"Sophie," her mother's voice was happy once again, as she let Sophie go, adjusting her new handbag, and Sophie wobbled back to the bed. "Honey, we need to talk about a few things."

Sophie felt her heart sink, knowing this wasn't good. "What?" she asked tiredly, running a hand through her hair, her fury with her Yu Yu Hakusho friends pushed aside for now. "What do you want?"

Her mother, she always wanted something - mostly clothes and jewelry and handbags, but other stuff, too. She never, never stopped asking, even if she had everything she could ever want. Even if it killed those around her. Even if it was killing Sophie.

She didn't care.

"Well, Sophie," her mother smiled sweetly, but there was a fire beneath her gaze, lingering just out of reach. "I know you transfered your college courses to online, what with Claire, but I also know you haven't been keeping up with them..." she trailed off, her smile stretching, and Sophie wanted to gag.

Oh no, college? Not that. Hadn't her mother asked enough of her already?

Sophie had been excited when she'd finished high school, bursting at the seams with her want to go to college, to really get somewhere in life. She'd applied to the best universities in the field that she wanted, and they'd all eagerly awaited her application, practically begging her to attend, even sending out scouts her her house personally, but then...

"Haven't I given you everything, Sophie?" her mother was putting on the sad face. "Haven't I been a good enough mother?"

But then her mother had interfered, wrecking all of Sophie's plans. She'd frowned upon Sophie's choice of major, telling her that she shouldn't go for it, that she should get a business degree instead, help her out at the Inn, though Sophie had practically run the place since she was ten. She'd told her she couldn't do it, that it would be a waste, and eventually, Sophie hadn't cared...

Eventually, nothing had mattered. Claire's death was all she thought about, her life consumed by it, and nothing else mattered anymore - not even her future, not even her dreams.

So she'd opted out, on more than one thing. She'd decided to get a business degree, going to the local college, working at the Inn, date the man she hated more than just about any other. And her mother had been happy, going out on her sprees and staying at hotels and doing all the things she'd been doing for years, since she had Sophie around.

But now...now it obviously wasn't enough. Now she wanted even more.

"You need to get your grades up, study even harder," her mother's words seemed to be coming from far away, and Sophie's vision was starting to look real blurry, turning to clouds at the edges. "You're not trying hard enough. You know, I don't pay those ridiculous college fees for nothing, Sophie," she saw a million of her mothers grimace, her vision like a fly's. "You need to stop being so lazy."

Sophie blinked, feeling a tremor shake through her.

_"You need to stop being so lazy." _

Lazy? Is that what her mother thought, that she was _lazy_? How could she think that? Sophie had done everything for her, ever since she was ten! She'd taken care of everything, sacrificed everything, and now she was considered lazy?

_"You need to stop being so lazy." _

She'd never wanted it - any of it! She'd never wanted to run the stupid Inn. She hated it, keeping track of check-ins and check-outs, making sure everything was clean and stocked and done while her mother was out having fun, abusing her title of "parent". She'd never wanted to date Neil, the abusive ingrate who'd basically used her for a punching bag. She'd never wanted to go to community college. She hated business, as good at it as she was.

_"...lazy." _

And how...

_"...lazy." _

...could her mother...

_"...lazy." _

...think this of her?

_LAZY!_

"Sophie," her mother's voice, angry now, rang in her mind, and suddenly Sophie felt angry, the world coming together again, her fly vision gone. "How dare you! Are you even lis-"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" the words erupted from Sophie's mouth, loud enough to shake the walls, and she shrunk back, barring her teeth like a cornered animal. "I HATE YOU! I JUST -" she stopped for a moment, meeting her mother's shocked face. "I HATE YOU!" the words were spat like venom, shuddering through her.

Sophie faintly heard pounding footsteps as her friends rushed up the stairs, all probably thinking she was in danger, all probably having their weapons drawn. She faintly heard someone shout her name in a scared cry, coming up the stairs behind the others, who tried to push them back, but none of that seemed to matter now.

Because all that Sophie cared about was the look on her mother's face.

Her mother looked shocked, her mouth hanging open, her eyes wide as plates. Sophie had never talked back to her before, never told her what she thought, and she was shocked because of it. She was shocked that her daughter would actually yell at her, actually give her the blame that she deserved.

Though Sophie wasn't sorry. Not one bit.

"I...I see..." her mother's voice shook as her friends crowded the door, all looking vicious, until they realized just what had happened. "I'll...go now..." Sophie watched her mother as she went to leave, teeth still barred and eyes blazing, but she didn't see sorrow or regret in the woman's eyes...

Instead she saw fire, malice, revenge.

She knew this wasn't the last she would hear about this, not by a long shot.

* * *

"So, what was that all about, anyway?" the question came from Yusuke, who was sitting on the couch in the living room, far away from Sophie. "Why'd you and the hag get in a fight?"

Sophie felt her mask-like coverup crack a little as she smiled, liking his description of her mother. Though she was still kind of upset with Yusuke and his friends, she had pushed it aside for now, especially since they'd saved her from the woman known as her mother.

On her way out, her mother had turned and lunged at Sophie, who hadn't been expecting the attack from the woman who hated to even get dew on her shoes. Yusuke had been the first one to rush forward, ignoring Kuwabara's protests of "you can't attack girls!", wrapping his arms around her mother's waist and hurling her into the hallway. Her mother hadn't been hurt, of course, but she'd stormed out none the less, the door slamming behind her...

It had taken Sophie nearly a half-hour to stop shaking after that, though she hadn't wanted to seem weak in front of her friends, since she was supposed to be the brave, hard one, there to protect Claire. But they hadn't said anything, piling into the room and chatting with her, and, later, going downstairs, where they were now...watching television as it neared nine in the morning (she'd woken up early, apparently).

"So?" Yusuke's voice once again brought her from her thoughts. "What was it?"

Sophie saw Keiko, who she'd nearly forgotten was there, glare at her boyfriend. "Yusuke!" she chided, but Yusuke just grimaced at her.

"What?" he asked, talking back. "It was a good question! I want to know!"

Sophie almost laughed at that, not sure she wanted to tell him. "Well..." she started, but the words wouldn't come, her throat feeling raw from earlier.

She had never expected to yell at her mother like that, spouting everything she had been keeping to herself for so long - well, everything condensed, anyway, since what she'd said wasn't nearly what she actually wanted to tell the woman. But, she'd surprised herself, and she felt almost happy about it...

She'd finally stood up for herself. Maybe now she would get somewhere, get to go to school like she really wanted to, get to...

But it still wouldn't matter, would it? In less than a month, Claire would be gone, and she would be all alone.

Sophie frowned at that, looking down, and it was finally Claire who answered Yusuke.

"Sophie doesn't want to be a business major," she explained, and Yusuke's nose wrinkled, probably at the mention of school. "But her mom, well...she doesn't agree..." she trailed off, frowning, and Sophie picked up the rest.

Her eyes met Yusuke's. "She made me go anyway," she explained, the words tasting sour in her mouth, like she wasn't supposed to say them, like she should have had more to say, like she should have fought her mother harder. "And I guess...I guess I'm just tired of it," the reality of the words hit her, and she sighed.

It was true, she was tired of it: of being used, abused, and treated like a dog, basically. She was so sick of it, just the thought made her want to vomit...or to attack something, either one. But still, it didn't matter, because at the end of the day, she knew -

"So, what did you want to go to school for?" this question came from Keiko, who seemed interested in the school topic. "If not for business, then..."

Sophie felt herself blush, looking down at her lap. Though she wasn't embarrassed by her dream necessarily, she knew it was a little odd, and most people who knew it made fun of her for it, or just gave her those freaky stares. Though she didn't necessarily think that her new friends would do that, she also didn't want to tell them, because -

It was personal, too personal. And she was tired of sharing personal things with people she didn't (really) know.

But, before she could change the subject, Claire ruined it for her, speaking up of her own accord.

"Sophie wants to be a _forensic anthropologist_," Claire stated, earning several raised eyebrows from the group (and several confused faces, namely Yusuke and Kuwabara). "Just like in the TV show, Bones."

Sophie felt her face turn even redder as she glared at Claire, who shrugged.

Great. Now they knew.

She was a bones freak.

"Bones?" Yusuke blinked, still not getting it. "So, you want to act on TV?" Sophie could have hit him, but she didn't.

Instead, Kurama spoke up, chuckling at his friend. "I believe, Yusuke, that a forensic anthropologist's job is to identify the remains of a murder victim who has increased decomposition."

"What?" neither Yusuke nor Kuwabara got this.

Kurama sighed. "When a human dies, and nothing is left of their body but bones, they need someone to figure out who that person is, how they were murdered."

"Oh..." from both the clowns.

Hiei snorted from the corner, though Sophie couldn't tell if he was disgusted by what she wanted to do, or by his idiot friends, and Yusuke frowned. "So, you want to play with dead people?" he asked, and Sophie glared at him.

How dare he mock her wanted career choice? What did he do for a living? He was a deadbeat who beat up demons. At least she wanted to do something _useful _with her life.

"Claire," the name was said in a sharp, commanding tone as Sophie's fists balled. She was tired of talking about this. "have you gotten that list done?"

Claire jumped, shocked. "Um...yes..." she said, pulling a slip of paper out of her pocket. "But..." she trailed off, handing the list to Sophie.

Yusuke and Kuwabara sighed, getting the hint that the topic of Sophie's obsession with people's bones was over.

Sophie tried to calm herself down as she unfolded the paper that Claire had given her, trying to forget about everyone's reaction to her wanted career of choice. She couldn't remember the day she had decided that she wanted to become a forensic anthropologist, but she assumed it was probably sometime around the time of Claire's parents death, though she had always been kind of obsessed with bones...

Or maybe it was the reality of her friend's death that had brought it about. Maybe Sophie just didn't want to be around the living, knowing that horrible things could happen if she got attached to people again, and the dead would always be dead.

Sophie pushed that despairing thought aside as she looked at the unfolded paper, Claire's "Bucket List".

She'd asked Claire to write it up a few days ago, knowing that she could no longer escape the facts, though she still hadn't wanted to admit it. Her and Claire had talked about the list for a while, about things that Claire might put on it, things that she might want to do before she died...and Sophie had promised her that she would try her hardest to make them happen.

And here it was, the list, sitting in Sophie's hands, feeling as heavy as the whole world to her.

"The carnival?" Sophie read off the first thing on the list, and heard a groan issue from somewhere in the room, though she wasn't sure where. "You've really never been to the carnival?" Sophie looked up at Claire, who shrugged sheepishly.

Her friend was smiling. "Not really," she admitted, blushing a little. "But I've always wanted to go, and it seemed like an easy sort of thing to do..." she trailed off, looking down. "But maybe...if you guys don't want to..."

Sophie saw her friend nearly jump as their Yu Yu Hakusho buddies nearly attacked the idea, reassuring Claire that they would love to go to a carnival (though Sophie secretly suspected that they wouldn't...if they even knew what it was). The only person who didn't rush to reassure was Hiei, though Sophie couldn't have cared less what he thought at the moment, still angry with him for invading her dream earlier.

Okay, so everyone wanted to go, but where were they going to find...

"The fall carnival," Sophie breathed the words, and everyone stopped, staring up at her. "Of course, that's today! Only a little ways away..." she smiled, remembering the street. "I printed out a sheet a few weeks ago. I still have it. You guys can input the address in the GPS and be on your way. It starts in about an hour, and ends at nine tonight, I think," she smiled, nodding to herself, happy that this first thing on Claire's "Bucket List" would be easy to accomplish.

Of course, Kurama was the one to pick up on her wording. "You're not coming?" he asked, with a feinted shocked look, a set of secret, golden colored steel lurking behind his eyes. "You said 'you guys'..." he trailed off as everyone turned to Sophie, all raising eyebrows in confusion.

Sophie met Claire's eyes and felt her heart sink.

It wasn't that she didn't want to go with her friend, of course. She hated to even leave Claire's side, having already wasted a day, but she knew that she had to, and if that meant that Claire still got to go to the carnival, then fine. Sophie just wanted her to be happy.

She deserved it.

"Someone's got to stay and watch the Inn," Sophie tried to sound nonchalant, but she knew the two demons in her midst didn't buy her words. "I don't mind. I just want to you to go," she kept staring at Claire, trying not to look at Hiei, who she was sure was giving her a glare. "Don't say no, just go. My mom's out right now," she held up Claire's "Bucket List", smiling. "I'll be there for the rest."

Claire opened her mouth, looking like she might protest, but then closed it again. "Alright," she sighed, not looking as happy as before, but then stood, heading towards the stairs. "I'll go get ready," she vanished up them a moment later, and Sophie turned to glare at her other friends.

"Well?" she demanded, giving them a 'you'd better get going, if you know what's good for you' glare.

"You're gonna stay here all by yourself?" the question was Kuwabara's. "You sure you don't want one of us to stay with you?"

Sophie shook her head before they could protest, feeling her insides wrench.

She didn't want them there. Any of them. She just wanted to be alone.

"No," her words were final, and everyone sighed, standing, too. "Go ahead," she said, and then found Hiei's gaze. "All of you."

* * *

Sophie checked her watch as she sighed another time, bored out of her mind.

It was five in the afternoon, and she hadn't had one customer yet, which she was both grateful for and annoyed at. She just hoped that Claire and the others were having fun, riding rides, eating cotton candy...

Sophie felt her mind wander as she sat there, going back to the reason she had stayed. She hadn't wanted to burden Claire with the information, knowing her poor friend had enough to deal with, and she hadn't wanted to tell the Yu Yu Hakusho group, not wanting to let them anymore into her life than she had to, but...

She'd gotten a note earlier, from her mother. She'd noticed it on her way down the stairs, before she'd met her friends in the living room.

It was a threat, a warning. It had told her to stay and watch the Inn, reminding her that if she left, she would be kicked out, and her new, strange friends, and Claire, would have nowhere to go...

And so Sophie had stayed, not wanting to put more pressure on Claire - and even on Yusuke and the crew, though she sometimes hated them. It wouldn't have been fair.

And she didn't mind, not really. At least she got to sort out her thoughts, got some time to herself, to cry on the inside...

Sophie was suddenly pulled from her thoughts as the front door opened, admitting a tall, lean man she had never seen before. He was wearing a long coat and hat, his face covered slightly, no real features distinguishable.

Sophie smiled, playing the nice host. "Can I help you?" she asked, straightening herself at the desk.

The man didn't move, probably didn't even blink.

Sophie frowned. "Um...sir?" she asked, confusing, wondering if there was something wrong with him.

The man nodded once, then turned and walked out, as if he'd never wanted anything at all. Sophie frowned as she heard his truck pull away, leaving her alone once again, and then -

A tight hand wound around her waist, and a cloth was thrust in front of her face, and everything turned to darkness all around, blotting out all of the light.

* * *

Dun dun dun! Sophie's been kidnapped! Who do you think did it? And what will happen at the carnival? Will Claire manage to have fun without Sophie, will Yusuke and Kuwabara eat too much cotton candy, will Hiei get annoyed and kill everyone (kidding...maybe)? And when will they realize that someone's missing? Well...you'll find out next chapter...maybe...

For those who were concerned, I'm, unfortunately, still sick, though I am getting better. But, as such, I don't know when you'll see another chapter. Hopefully soon. ASAP, anyway.

As always, PLEASE REVIEW! The plot bunnies are hungry as always, and they need something long and juicy.

~Foxgirl Ray


	10. November 4th, 27 Days Left, Part Two

Hello, everyone!

I had the hardest time writing this...I hope it's up to your standards. If not, then I'm sorry. It's just an strange part in the story, though it's necessary.

**Dedicated to: **_DoilyRox, Times Unfettered Imagination Bomb (sorry, it wouldn't let me put your name all together, don't know why), Cutie Pie 9335, ShadowsOfTheHeart, DarksAngelOfTheNight, and Heve-chan. _Thank you, my wonderful reviewers!

Please enjoy!

* * *

_November 4th (27 Days Left), Part 2_

Claire watched the ticket line as it grew smaller and smaller, shrinking as people got their tickets and were admitted into the carnival, becoming less and less of a line. She felt her heart wrench as she stared around past the gates - where people young and old were enjoying the carnival - wishing that Sophie was among them.

Of course, she understood why her friend hadn't come, and she understood. She was grateful for it, actually, even if she didn't want to voice it, even if she didn't want to admit that she knew the truth. She wasn't as naive as Sophie would have liked to think...

Claire had figured out Sophie's real reason for not coming shortly after her friend had told everyone she would be absent, the thoughts swirling in her mind as she'd gone upstairs to change. She knew Sophie's mother well, having lived with her for so long, and she knew her moods, and what she would do since Sophie "disobeyed" her...

Not that Claire was upset with what her friend had said -

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Claire had watched for years, stood to the side as Sophie was brutally abused by her mother, in more ways than one. She'd watched the pain her friend had suffered at her mother's hands, the torment that she'd been put through because of her mother's selfishness, and she had always hated it. She'd even tried to stop it once, though Sophie had interfered, reminding Claire of their situation.

_"Don't you know what will happen to us?" _Sophie had said, sharp glares of ice in her eyes. _"Don't you know why I'm doing this? Why I'm listening to her?" _

Claire had thought she'd known, thought she could see through her best friend like she could see through glass, but...she'd been wrong...

"Claire?" a voice blinked Claire from her thoughts, and Claire's eyes met Yusuke's. "Hey, you still in there?"

Claire blinked before she answered, not having realized that she was holding up the line. Angry faces leered at her from behind as she glanced back, offering them a somewhat shocked smile. "Um..." suddenly, Claire didn't feel so much like a carnival anymore. "Yeah..."

And so Claire stepped forward, joining her friends, trying to erase the image of Sophie's ice-filled eyes from her mind.

She didn't want to think about that.

* * *

Claire sat looking down at the world a few hours later, after it was dark, a certain redhead situated beside her, wondering where her friends were in the gigantic crowd.

Her and her friends had split up a while, rushing different ways, after different things. At first, Claire had been scared, thinking that they should all just stay together, not get sepparated because who knew what could happen, but then she'd calmed herself, knowing that her friends could take care of themselves - after all, if they'd fought off demons and goodness knows what else, she was sure that a few wayward humans would never bother them.

They'd all agreed to meet at the carnival's eatery (an outset set of picnic benches next to a stage) later, sure that they would all probably be tired by then...or at least in need of food.

Claire's eyes darted around as she searched for her friends, trying to pick out their distinct faces in the crowd of buzzing humans below. Despite the fact that they didn't dress the same as they did in the anime, and they looked a little different than she'd thought they would, she felt confident she would still be able to pick them out...

But, after minutes of searching, Claire saw no one, not even Botan and Koenma, who had gone searching for cotton candy, Botan nearly obsessed with the strange, fluffy stuff that was the same color as her hair.

_They must already be riding rides. _Claire thought as the people beneath her grew smaller, and her breath caught in her chest, not used to the change in altitude. _Their lucky they can ride..._

Claire knew that, with her condition, there was no way she would be able to survive a wayward carnival ride - not to live and see the rest of the month, that is. So when Yusuke and Kuwabara had all but ogled at the swirling rides, she'd smiled and told them to go ahead, watching as they dragged poor Keiko off with them, the girl reminding them she wasn't going on any scary rides (and Yusuke grinning, telling her they would see about that).

She'd seen them in line for something called "Death Doom" on her way to the ferris wheel she was now on, and they'd grinned at her while waving from the sidelines, like kids at Christmas.

And of course, as predicted, Hiei had wandered off, probably finding some nearby tree to lounge in until the night was done, since he wasn't too keen on the whole carnival thing...

Which had left Claire with Kurama, who was sitting next to her now.

Claire snuck a glance at him, trying to be nonchalant, and even though he didn't turn and look at her, she could tell he noticed.

"You know," his voice was soft, strange, muffled somehow, as if he didn't quite want to talk. "it's strange. It's been a while since I simply watched a crowd," Claire followed his gaze to the mass of humans sitting below, the mass she'd just been staring at, feeling her heart sink.

Even though what Kurama had said seemed inocent, Claire knew what he''d meant.

_"...a while since I simply watched a crowd." _

It probably _had_ been a long time since he'd watched a crowd - watched it without fear - fear of something running out, trying to attack, trying to locate him, trying to gain some evil advanatage. It had probably been a long time since Kurama hadn't been worried for his life...not that he seemed worried much about it, anyway.

But even though there was no possible danger, Claire could still see him watching, overanalyzing every person and every stray, looking for danger underneath the surface. Though he knew there were no demons and no fights and no evils to worry about in Claire's world, he still looked, if not out of nothing but habit.

_How...sad..._Claire couldn't help but think, not even noticing that she was staring at Kurama now, a frowning, worried expression on her face. _To live in fear like that, to not even be able to get away..._

It was tragic, heartbreaking, even if no one wanted to admit it. Being trapped in a habit like that, you could never be free. You would always be looking, always be searching for something that wasn't there. There would always be shadows lurking, whether you were safe or not, whether there was no present danger, no whispered rumors of evil lurking about...

_"Don't you know why I'm doing this?" _

But...then again...

"You're different than I'd thought you'd be," the words tumbled out of Claire's mouth without a leash, and she felt herself blush as Kurama turned to look at her, finally half-ignoring the unreal danger that lurked in the crowd in front of them. "I...I mean..." she trailed off, not knowing where she'd been hoping to go with that.

It was true, though. He _was_ different than she'd thought he'd be. She wasn't quite sure how, but...but he _was_ different.

Maybe it wasn't the type of different than made him a completely different person than he'd been in the anime, but it was different enough to make Claire take pause as she considered her favorite character, who was now as real to her as anyone had ever been.

Kurama's eyes seemed to glow a different green as he looked at her, the clouds above them rolling in their graves, promising rain soon. Claire couldn't help but turn even redder as she caught his gaze, thinking that those different green of his eyes reflected the difference of his real personality.

"Different?" he repeated, and then a small, alomost smug smile passed his lips, sitting there briefly before flitting off. "How so, may I ask?"

Now he wanted her to define it - define _him_? Great...

Claire tried to look away as she bit her lip, still not sure how to carry on, but she found that she couldn't quite do that. Those eyes were mesmerizing, for more than one reason.

The color was a first guess, of course, and though Claire thought it was strikingly rich, she couldn't help but be more fascinated by what lurked behind that color, just in the shadows - what she'd gotten a glimpse of the last time she'd stared at Kurama, that day at the piano, when he'd offered her a tantilizing look into his soul, though he hadn't excactly said anything.

There was wisdom behind those eyes of his, wisdom that she'd probably never know...and probably didn't really want anyway, the knowledge such a burden that it was overwhelming sometimes. There was also hope, and sadness, and anger...and a million other emotions, and something else...lurking just beneath the surface, just far enough out of reach.

Something she would have, had she had a million years left to live, never have been able to grasp.

"You look like you..." Claire searched for the right word, drowning in an emerald pool though she was. "..._regret_."

Regret? Was that right? Was that what was so different about Kurama - so unlike what she'd thought he'd be like? Regret?

_Yes. _Claire's mind supplied the answer. _Yes, it is. _

She didn't think Kurama would be full of such regret - regret over everything and nothing, it seemed, over things that were locked away inside of him, on the verges where she just couldn't reach. Not to say that she'd thought he would be cruel and nearly-heartless - not anymore - but she'd still never thought he would share as much regret.

Though she could understand why.

All of Kurama's life had been full of regret, from beginning to end. He might not have felt it as much, or paid attention to it when he was a demon thief, but she was sure it had been there, especially after Kuronue's demise. And now, as a sort-of-human, he had even more on his plate, with mixed emotions about nearly everything, with having to try and act perfect.

_I understand. _Claire suddenly felt as if she'd found a kindred soul. _I too have so much to regret. _

Claire had regrets from all the way around. In her past. In her present. In her nonexistent future...

There was so much that she hadn't been able to do, hadn't been able to accomplish, hadn't even been able to experience.

She'd never graduated college, never gotten married, never raised a family. She'd never accomplished her dream, or left the world anything to miss when she left the world behind...She'd never even been kissed, for goodness sake!

But none of it mattered now, not really. Because soon, Claire knew she would be gone. She would be dead to the world, and only a few people would miss her...and that was okay.

She didn't want to die, but, while she was still alive, she also wanted to _live_.

"I hate the word 'regret'," Claire finally managed to look away from Kurama, blinking as they neared the ground, the ferris wheel getting ready to stop. "I think that people learn to regret, and then they forgot to keep _living_," she spared another glance at Kurama then, and, seeing his face was unreadable, decided to ask him the question.

"But," Claire's throat felt tight. "speaking of regret, do you regret meeting me?"

As the words left her lips, it felt like a stupid question, because Claire was sure the answer was yes, since she was causing him and his friends additional pain, but still Claire didn't look away. She kept her gaze locked onto Kurama's face as she watched his eyes shift, changing color, and then...

"No," his eyes were bright, like burning stars, stealing her breath away. "that I do not regret."

* * *

Claire felt like a floating balloon as she walked over to the table near them, all but falling into the seat, her breath feeling like it had been stolen away.

It was time for everyone to meet yet again, time for them to head home or at least eat, and her and Kurama was the first two to arrive at the designated meeting space. Claire figured that Botan and Koenma were on their way, and that Yusuke and his group would probably be longer (wanting to get a few more rides in no doubt), and then Hiei...

Well, she wasn't so sure about Hiei.

"Out of breath, are you?" her companion asked, sitting down next to her, offering her a small, almost sad smile.

Claire knew it was obvious, but at least he was trying to make conversation. "Yes," she admitted. "All these people..." she trailed off, feeling her head swim as she looked out at the crowd around her, feeling her heart hammer in her chest.

Even if she hadn't been sick, Claire would have freaked out by the crowd around, which was much too big for her and her phobias - particularly her claustrophobia. She'd never much liked small crowds, let alone big ones...

_Too many people. _Claire thought. _Not enough space..._

Her thoughts were cut away as a figure suddenly appeared, sitting at the table along with them, scowling.

"There's too many humans," Hiei said, casting weary glances around, obviously thinking the same thing as Claire was thinking. He grimaced. "Where are the rest of the idiots so we can leave?"

If Kurama objected to being called an idiot, he didn't voice it, though there was a hint of steel in his gaze. "On their way," he said. "Be patient, Hiei."

Hiei looked like he was about to say something (probably some mean remark) when suddenly Claire heard music, and she cut in, not even thinking about it.

"I know this song!" the words sounded strange to her, as if she shouldn't have been saying them. "It's Sophie's...everybody says that..." she immediately regretted uttering the words, feeling music start to rush over her, the song tuning, reminding her of things she would rather forget.

Dancing.

Music.

Words.

Thoughts.

Feelings...

_Tears_.

This song, it was Sophie's, sad as it was.

"This is her song?" Kurama seemed surprised by this development, and Claire had to wonder if he'd ever heard of songs being dedicated or attached to people before. Did they do that kind of thing in his world? "Strange it's being played here..." he trailed off, eyes looking at the stage not far from them, where there was a band set up, probably to raise money for some sort of cherity or something.

Claire couldn't stop her words from forming. "I wish Sophie was here," she said, feeling the truthfullness of the words run through her like lightening. "She'd love to hear this, though..." she trailed off again, trying to keep her secrets to herself, but then the words slipped away from her again, spoken into the world, unreachable forever. "But...it would probably make her sad..."

Songs had a way of doing that, but this one did especially. This was a fuller, sader song, one that held much too much meaning for Claire's friend Sophie.

One that was much too true of Sophie herself.

"Sad?" Kurama's voice seemed to come from a million miles away, and Claire barely even noticed when Hiei shifted his gaze to the singers on the stage, who were still warming up their instruments, oddly interested.

Claire nodded without meaning to. "Yes," she said, voice distant as the song's music started up, flowing and soft and Country-like, people now starting to crowd around the stage. "Sophie has always had the 'Leave The Pieces' Attitude, though that's not really a good thing..." she felt something in her begin to break as she heard the words of the song, once again reminding her of Sophie.

_"You're not sure that you love me_

_But you're not sure enough to let me go_

_Baby it ain't fair you know_

_To just keep me hangin' 'round_

_You say you don't wanna hurt me_

_Don't wanna to see my tears_

_So why are you still standing here_

_Just watching me drown"_

Claire could remember the day she'd met Sophie, the day that was an unhappy one.

Claire had been new at school, shy, reserved, afraid - like most people who are considered strange are, especially when their in a new environment, and the rumors of their weirdness are going around. Claire hadn't talked to anyone all day, and had barely glanced at anyone's face...all until she saw Sophie.

The blonde girl had been standing next to a particularly formidible, few years older looking boy, who'd been smiling yet sneering at her, saying things that Claire hadn't really been able to understand, but the effects of which she'd seen clearly on Sophie's face. Sophie, for her part, had stood there and taken the boys abuse, all until a woman showed up in a car, walking up and over to the girl who Claire would come to know as Sophie.

The woman had been Sophie's mother, of course, and the boy, strangely enough, had been Neil, pining for Sophie even then. Sophie's mother had appologized to Neil for her daughter (though Sophie obviously hadn't done anything wrong), and Neil had smiled, saying everything was fine, and that he wouldn't tell his father.

And off Sophie had walked with her mother, who'd been giving her a brutal lecture (all the while adjusting her makeup), and Claire's pity for Sophie had begun.

_"And it's alright, yeah I'll be fine_

_Don't worry 'bout this heart of mine _

_Just take your love and hit the road_

_There's nothing you can do or say_

_You're gonna break my heart anyway_

_So just leave the pieces when you go"_

Claire and Sophie had found a familiar ground in their love for the anime Yu Yu Hakusho.

Claire had let it slip one day, as she was trying to approach the strangely silent girl named Sophie, that she watched the show, and then Sophie had started talking, astounding Claire, who had up until that point never heard her say more than "Hello".

And so the girls had started watching the show together, and their friendship had grown. They'd rallied on their favorite characters, talked about how annoying and yet funny Yusuke and Kuwabara could be, and even had a few crying sessions in episodes that probably weren't even that sad anyway. They'd watched reruns and wrote fanfictions and fantasized about meeting their favorite characters and done all the things that fans do.

And they'd loved it. They'd become best friends, and slowly, Sophie had started to talk more, developing an almost fierce, protective shield over Claire.

And so Claire's pity for Sophie had grown, getting bigger and bigger every day.

_"Now you can drag out the heartache _

_Baby you can make it quick_

_Really get it over with_

_And just let me move on_

_Don't concern yourself_

_With this mess you've left for me_

_I can clean it up, you see_

_Just as long as you're gone"_

Sophie had stuck with Claire through thick and thin, shielding her best friend from anything and everything she could. And, for the most part, it didn't seem like Sophie had minded. She'd still smiled when she'd needed to, nodded when she should, and been silent when she should have had the strength to speak up.

And all the while, Claire had watched, heartbroken that her best friend was silently being tortured, that she was enduring so much, but not able to do anything about it. She'd tried to lessen some of her friend's pain, being there for her when she needed it, and talking with her and listening when she needed to talk...but there had been a lot of things that Sophie had had (and still had) to endure on her own. There had been batles that Claire hadn't been able to help her win, battles that had nearly torn her apart...

_"Don't you know why I'm doing this?" _

And yet Sophie had walked on, not even bothering to try and dodge the horrible things that were cast her way, walking straight through the line of fire without a seconds thought...

_"Don't you know why I'm doing this?" _

And Claire had thought she knew why, thought that Sophie had only endured everything because she wanted to please her mother, to make things easier. But she'd been wrong, very wrong...

_"You not makin' up your mind _

_Is killing me and wasting time_

_I need so much more than that"_

Her best friend had endured the worst, and all for her...Sophie had endured the worst, because she didn't want_ Claire_ to have to suffer.

It was cruel and wrong and Claire hated it, but once Sophie got an idea in her mind, there was no backing out of it, no going back. She endured everything she went through because she knew that if she didn't, Claire would suffer for it - be thrown out, starve, die - and she hadn't wanted that, no matter what it cost her.

It was such a waste though, because in less than a month...Claire would be gone, and Sophie's whole world would be shattered. Sophie would have nowhere to go, and wouldn't know what to do with herself, since her practical reason for living would be gone.

_"And it's alright, yeah I'll be fine_

_Don't worry 'bout this heart of mine _

_Just take your love and hit the road_

_There's nothing you can do or say_

_You're gonna break my heart anyway_

_So just leave the pieces when you go"_

And no matter what Claire wanted to do for her friend, it was no use. She couldn't help Sophie, she couldn't even try.

She had no money, no family, no life left to live. She would never be able to give her friend back all of the wonderful sacrifices that had been given to her. She would never be able to help Sophie that much...

Never...

_"So just leave the pieces when you go"_

Claire felt tears on her cheeks as the song ended, the words lingering in her mind. She didn't look at her friends, all of whom were there now, and she didn't wonder or care what they thought. All that lingered on her mind was Sophie, who was alone now, once again giving her another sacrifice.

All that lingered on her mind was the fact that she could do nothing for her friend, could never help...unless...

Claire looked up, seeing her friends faces, and she found Hiei staring at her strangely, and she hoped that he'd just read her mind.

She couldn't help Sophie, unless...

_"...leave the pieces when you go"_

* * *

Claire felt her legs wobble beneath her, finally landing her on the sofa, the printed note in her hand shaking along with the rest of her.

"We have to get out there and find her, dammit!" these words came shockingly from Yusuke, who seemed just as upset as anyone else. "We're wasting time sitting around here!"

Claire couldn't agree more, but she didn't know what to do. She was fighting just to stay conscious, her body wanting to collapse on itself.

Too much.

It was just too much.

"We have to be logical about this, Yusuke," from Kurama, who's voice made Claire feel just a little more calm. "We need to see if we can track her."

Claire felt bile rise in her throat, tears choking her.

Sophie was gone. They'd come back, and she was gone. There had been a note, but no address, no ransom. Just Sophie, gone.

Sophie was gone.

Maybe dead.

Who knew.

_I'll never be able to help her now. _Claire's tears felt heavy. _I'll never be able to help her. _

"Fine, where's Hiei!" from Yusuke again. "He'll be able to...Where is Hiei anyway? He's..."

Claire finally looked up as Yusuke's voice trailed off, following everyone's gaze towards the front door, which was already open, swinging on its hinges.

Hiei was already gone.

* * *

There you are! Chaptet ten! Wow! I never thought I'd make it this far...And next chapter will be a really big one...

In case you haven't noticed, I absolutely adore Country music. If you're interested in the song, you can check it out on Youtube. It's called "Leave The Pieces", and it's by The Wreckers. It will play a big part in this story, just to let you know.

Thank you all for reading, and PLEASE REVIEW! The plot bunnies are eating through my couch!


	11. November 4th, 27 Days Left, Part Three

Hello everyone!

**Dedication to: **_DarksAngelOfTheNight, DoilyRox, Heve-Chan, and Times Unfettered Imagination Bomb. You're all wonderful! XD_

Enjoy!

* * *

_November 4th (27 Days Left), Part Three_

When Sophie finally managed to open her eyes, she was appalled by the sight that met her.

_Dark_. It was dark.

Everything was dark, in shadow, the only light coming from...where was that? A crack? A window? A...seam?

Where was she? What was this horrible place?

_Trunk. _

The word hit Sophie like a heavy blow, and she felt her heart begin to hammer, fear setting in immediately.

A trunk. She was in a trunk! They'd kidnapped her - someone had - and taken her away, placing her in a trunk, of all things...and then they'd left, because now...she didn't hear anything.

Nothing. There was no one there.

She was locked in a trunk, in who knows where, all alone and helpless.

_No. _Sophie set her jaw as her eyes started to adjust, her body growing ever more tense. _Alone, maybe, but not helpless. I can still fight. _

It seemed to Sophie like she had been fighting her whole life, trying to get the best of the things that had hopelessly entangled her. She may not have fought the way that her new friends did (Sophie knew she would back-peal even trying to do a karate kick), but it was fighting nonetheless...and in some ways, she had a feeling it was harder.

Though her friends had emotions to deal with, most of those things went away when they had a battle to fight. After all, if the weight of the world was on your shoulders, there was hardly any room for worry and angst and fear, was there? If your life (and others) was on the line, you couldn't afford to let those small little things dubbed "emotions" get in your way...

But Sophie, she had no battles to fight - not real, bloody, brutal ones, anyway.

Sophie tried to breathe as she examined the interior of the trunk she'd been stuffed into, feeling like the walls were closing in on her slowly, whispering horrid things about a suffocating death. There was no way out that she could see, and whoever had trapped her there obviously hadn't been an idiot, because there was no trace of cell phone or technology in the small little compartment - no way for her to try and call for help.

Not that anyone would have answered her call...

Sophie took in as many short breaths as she dared as she tried to shift around, finding it increasingly difficult, since there was barely enough room in the trunk for her to roll onto her side, let alone do anything productive. She was met with grey-lined felt carpet before she switched sides again, finding nothing useful, facing the trunks rear-end, where the small light was, coming from a little pinprick-sized hole.

Light. Hope. Safety. Warmth.

Things she would never experience again unless she found a way out.

Sophie took in a few more small breaths as she wracked her brain for any useful (or even useless) information, trying to remember how to get out of a car's trunk. She knew she'd seen it somewhere...on a TV show maybe?

_Yes. _Sophie nodded to herself, remembering just the episode, in which the main character had gotten kidnapped as well. _I remember. I can do this..._

She _had_ to do this. She didn't have a choice in whether she _could _do it or not.

It was either get out or die, and she refused to choose the latter. If she were dead, then Claire would have no none to count on, no one to rely upon in her last days on earth...accept Yusuke and his friends.

_No! _Sophie fidgeted herself so that her foot was against the far wall of the car's rear, right where the taillight should have been. She remembered seeing that, if you're trapped in a trunk, you should try and kick the headlights out, to see where you were, so she started kicking, hitting the interior as hard as she could with her heeled shoe. _I refuse to let that happen! I won't stop fighting! Not now! _

She couldn't leave Claire with Yusuke and his idiot friends! They didn't care about her - not like Sophie did! They would never know what her best friend really needed! They would never...

Sophie's heartbeat thrummed in her ears as she kicked harder, willing the taillight behind her foot to break - for a way out of this mess to present itself. But the taillight wouldn't move.

Her fighting was futile.

_No! _Sophie thought again, feeling panicked now, her leg starting to ache as if it were on fire. _I have to get out! I can't loose to them! I can't let them be there for Claire when I can't be!_

She couldn't loose...just this once, she wanted to win.

Sophie had fought so hard - for everything that mattered, for everyone she cared about - but in the end, she always lost. Always. Her labors proved well for those she sacrificed for, but she never won anything in the end. And, for the most part, she didn't - _hadn't_ - cared, but now...

Now she didn't want to fight anymore, because she was tired of fighting. Now she hardly even cared.

Sophie finally stopped beating against the inside of the trunk, her whole body slumping against the trunk's floor in defeat. It just didn't matter anymore - _nothing_ mattered.

She'd tried her hardest, fought as she always did, but there was no way out, and she was going to die. There was no way out, and Claire was going to be alone for the last of her days, what few she had left.

After everything that Sophie had done for Claire, after every trial she had succeeded in, this was where she would finally fail.

_"And it's alright, yeah I'll be fine_

_Don't worry 'bout this heart of mine _

_Just take your love and hit the road"_

The words of the song rang through Sophie's mind as she felt her frame tremble, reminding her of things she'd rather forget. It was a taunt, telling her secretly how her fate would end - a taunt, rather than a perfect melody.

_"There's nothing you can do or say_

_You're gonna break my heart anyway"_

She was locked in the trunk of a car. Her friends were miles - maybe states - away. She wouldn't be able to be there for Claire...She would never get to have the life that she secretly wished for.

She was going to die.

In the trunk of a car.

All alone...

Forever alone.

_"So just leave the pieces when you go"_

Rain started to pound the trunk's hood above her as the song faded from Sophie's mind, and she curled into a ball, willing the tears to come until she finally cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Okay, so, short, I know. My explaination is: this chapter was supposed to be MUCH LONGER, but it also was supposed to take place over two days, and I've been doing a day (or section of a day) a chapter, so I decided to leave the end of this for next chapter (the next day). So, next chapter will also be Sophie's, and will continue on from here...and be longer...sorry...

As said before, the song ties into the whole fic. So this isn't the last time you'll see it.

Anywho, hope you liked this. PLEASE REVIEW! The plot bunnies are making messes, and they need inspiration before they'll settle down and let me write the next chapter...


	12. November 5th, 26 Days Left

_Hello everyone! I'm back! _

_Sorry this took so long. You can read my pathetic reasons for lateness at the bottom of the chapter. But, for being so late, I gave you a nice, long chapter. Hope it makes up for it..._

_**Dedicated to: **DarksAngelsOfTheNight, Zoe24, DoilyRox, and Heve-chan! Thank you my wonderful, wonderful reviewers! _

**WARNING: This chapter contains some language. Just to let you know. **

**Also, to anyone who's ever had to deal with stuff like this, I'm sorry. It's not cool at all.  
**

_Anywho, enjoy everyone!_**  
**

* * *

_November 5th, (26 Days Left)_

_"Sophie..." _

Where was she? It was dark, and the world felt like it was shifting, moving out from underneath her. It was dark, and she felt like she was floating, in a sea of tears and sadness...

_"Sophie..." _

Where was she? What had happened? Why did she suddenly feel so miserable, as if she would never be happy again? Why did she feel like her very reason for living had crumbled, somewhere deep inside of her, falling and crushing the secret light that whispered with a promise to break free from her chest?

_"Sophie..." _

Where was she? What had happened? Who was she with? Why did she suddenly feel like she was alone, though there was something there, whispering to her, telling her something she didn't quite understand, murmering things that didn't make sense. Why did she suddenly feel like she was all alone, and at the same time, like she was surrounded by friends?

_"Sophie."_

Where was she? What had happened? Who was she with?

...And just _who_ _was_ she, anyway?

_"SOPHIE!" _

The name blotted out everything else, wrapping her in an inky darkness as she was dragged into the depths below.

* * *

Sophie woke up to a headache, the sense of the world rotating underneath her still lingering in her waking mind. She looked around as she breathed in slowly, the memories rushing into her mind, her heart hammering in her chest.

Crying. She'd been crying, stuck in the trunk, the trunk she was in even now.

Rain. There had been rain, outside, hitting the top of her prison, ringing through her ears like a gong.

Music. There had been music, playing in her head, so soft and sad that she could barely take it.

And then...

Sophie swallowed the scream that threatened to rip her apart as the trunk door opened, her head feeling swollen and heavy, and looked up at the figure standing over her.

She didn't know why she hadn't guessed it. Looking back, it was really easy to tell what had been going on, what had been happening behind her back...what her kidnap had led to.

Neil. All tattered paths led to him, all painful paths...

He sneered as she shook the rest of her sleep off, feeling fear instead.

Rain was pouring in behind him as he reached for her, dragging her out of the trunk.

"I'll let you sit in the front if you promise to behave," he nearly smiled at her then - but it was a cold, cruel, sinister smile.

Sophie, of course, didn't really care. She was cold and tired and worn and done with fighting, so she simply let Neil drag her to the passenger's side, sighing as he threw her into the seat.

Sophie had never really felt defeated before then - tired, maybe, but not _defeated_. But something about watching the rain run down the windshield, caught by the windshield wipers and swept away like torrent, made her feel like she'd been beaten.

And of course, Neil didn't help.

"I called your mother and asked her what the hell she was thinking, bringing you out here," the words tasted sour in Sophie's mouth, even though Neil was the one saying them. "Of course, she was hardly coherent. Drunk out of her mind, the old bitch."

Sophie's mind started racing then, focusing on one thing and one thing only -

_Her mother. _

The reality that her mother had been the one to kidnap her, stuff her into a trunk, and leave her on the side of the road to die was a defening blow, though it wasn't completely unexpected. Sophie knew how she'd done it, and she knew why, but still...

The pain was still there. No matter how much she hated her mother at times, she felt betrayed, even more defeated than before. Even more useless, somehow.

But that wasn't the worst of it. What Neil said next was much, much worse.

"It's no matter about your mother, though," Neil waved off the subject of her mother as easily as he took a left turn, putting the car next to rows and rows of trees, heading into seemingly nowhere. "That bitch will get her due. I already have it planned out," he leaned forward a little then, gripping the wheel as if excited about something, and despite herself, Sophie felt almost sick.

"Your strange little friends are in for one hell of a surprise," Sophie gripped the edges of the seat when he said that, his eyes shining. "I rigged that damn Inn of your mother's. In about fourty minutes, it will be lighting the sky," the sick feeling in Sophie intensified, turning red and hot, pushing all of Sophie's chilled, cold feelings away. "And then that little bitch Claire will finally be out of the way. Not to mention -"

"WHAT!" Sophie wasn't able to hold it in any longer. She launched herself at Neil, gripping the wheel along with him. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" her face was close to his, everything inside of her burning like some horrible, intense fire. "WHAT DID YOU DO!"

She knew what he'd done, of course. She'd heard what he'd said. But she didn't believe it.

The road flashed by as Sophie fought with Neil for the wheel, nothing but blind fury in her mind, nothing but electrictity and adrenaline in her veins.

She couldn't believe it. He'd rigged her mother's house! To blow up! He'd been trying to kill all of her friends - to kill _Claire_! He'd actually thought it through, actually done it, and -

And there was _nothing_ she could do about it.

Sophie had always known that Neil was a jealous person. From day one, when he'd first met her, he had never wanted her around another person - only him.

He'd hated it when she'd befriended Claire, and had tried to run the poor girl off, though Sophie had never let him. He'd hated it when Sophie and her mother had moved out to the Inn to live (staying in a much nicer, bigger house before then), because she'd been further away. He'd hated it when she'd even glanced at another boy in school, said hello to her classmates.

He'd hated for her to have a life, of any kind.

"Goddammit Sophie, let go!" Neil had barred teeth as he fought with her for the wheel. "You stupid bitch, let go!"

But Sophie didn't let go. She didn't even try. She hung on, with every ounce of her life, screaming at him.

"NO!" the word erupted from her, threatening to shatter the glass, just like it had erupted from her when she'd talked back to her mother, finally letting her feelings show. "I won't let go! I'm holding on! I don't care - " she choked on something then, something that tasted like tears. "I don't care. I don't care if I run us into a tree!" Neil stared at her blindly, and she shut her eyes tight, tasting blood in her mouth. "I just don't _care_ anymore!"

The darkness closed in around her then, though she wasn't asleep, all other sounds and feelings drifting away, resting on just the edge of her subconcious. Sophie kept her eyes glued shut, not wanting to open them.

_"I don't care..." _

Her words - her voice - drifted through her mind, sounding louder and softer than before.

Her own words drifted through her mind, and then..something else...

_"You don't?" _The voice was just as quiet, recognizable but alien, as if it was coming from a long ways away. _"Are you sure about that?" _

Sophie tried to clutch and hang onto the strange, faraway voice, but it slipped through her fingers every time she grabbed it.

_"Yes." _She answered it, searching her mind for something concrete, for where the voice was coming from. _"That's right. I don't care. I don't want to fight. I'm tired of fighting..." _

Something stirred in the depths of the darkness as Sophie started to see light.

_"Really?" _The voice sounded amused then. _"Why don't I believe you?" _

Sophie was thrust back into the reality of rain and cars and Neil, glaring at her murderously as he raised a hand. All edges of blackness dissappeared from her vision as she gasped, the strange voice retreating from her mind, the whole world turning a different shade of black as her head hit the doorjamb...

* * *

Sophie woke sometime later - just how much later, she wasn't sure - to find herself in a dark room, the very person she hated with just about all of her might sitting a few feet away from her.

"So, you finally woke up," Neil's smile was condesending, like he hadn't done anything wrong. "I guess that's good to see..." his smile turned nasty as he trailed off, and Sophie felt her muscles tighten, her body wanting to flee like a suddenly uncaged animal.

She recognized the room she was in. It was long and dark, suited more to a Gothic horror film than a twentieth century home, though it wasn't necessarily ugly. The four-poster bed she was lying on was clothed in a ornate purple comforter, dim light flickering through the large window just across from the bed, hitting her face at just the wrong angle.

His house.

Neil's house, that's where she was.

Sophie was no stranger to Neil's house, and could have probably found her way through it in complete and total darkness - though it was roughly the size of a street block, as tall and ornate as a shopping mall. She'd been there many times, back when her and Neil had been dating, back when she'd hated her life even more than she did now...

_But Neil..._Sophie felt her head - where there was certain to be a large bruise, or lump, or something from her contact with the doorjumb - throb as she suddenly remembered what had happened, clutching at her chest in pain. _...in the car, he said - _

It couldn't have been true. He had to have been lying at her. He couldn't have really blown her friends away, blown Claire to bits...

Or could he? Had everything she'd ever known and loved and grown to become tollerant of vanished in a second, licked up by firey flames? Could everyone really be dead, condemning her to a life of even more misery, here, with Neil?

And did she even_ care_?

_No. _Sophie's vision felt blurry as she saw something move from nearby, something that was no doubt Neil's fist, which she was sure would soon strike her person. _Not anymore. I don't care. I don't want to fight - _

She was tired. _Too_ tired.

She was tired of trying to pretend that everything was perfect when it wasn't. She was tired of having to take care of her mother, obey her every whim, feed her every indulgence, just so Claire could be safe. She was tired of having to face Neil again and again, tired of being bruised and broken in more than one way. She was tired of seeing Claire dying...

She was tired. Just _tired. _

_She'd lost all of her will to fight. _

"Think you'll get off the hook so easily, bitch?" the distortions that danced before Sophie's eyes grew as she tried to follow Neil's voice, tried to find him in the dim light, though it was no use. Whatever had happened, she must have hit her head pretty hard. "Well then, think again."

Sophie barely even screamed as Neil's fist connected with her shoulder, sending an electrofying jolt through it, and she flew off of the bed, landing on the floor, every inch of her shaking with something other than fear - something that was so inhumane she could hardly stand it.

Something in her broke in that moment, and she gasped.

_"Fight back." _it was the voice from the recesses of her mind, back again. "_Don't just sit there, fight back! "_

Sophie tried to tell it once again that she didn't care, that she didn't want to fight, but all of her words were lost to the darkness as Neil struck her again, and she felt herself momentarily black out.

* * *

_"Sophie..." _

Sophie was once again floating through an inky blackness, what she assumed to be the recesses of her mind, where she just wanted to curl into a ball, never to surface again.

_"Sophie..." _

The voice was different this time - not the echoing, far away voice that she kept trying to cling and hold onto, but a softer, more near voice, something that she almost remembered...

_"Sophie..." _

Sophie blinked, and the world came to life, and suddenly...she was six-years-old again.

The world looked taller and bigger, just as it had when she'd been young - when she hadn't had to worry about abusive boyfriends and annoying mothers and a friend who was slowly dying. Everything was brighter in her young eyes, as she tried to shield them from the sun, standing next to a wide, brilliant lake with her father.

Oh. Her _father. _That's what this was about.

Sophie knew she should feel pain as she turned her little six-year-old head to look at the man next to her, but her young body just didn't feel it. Instead she felt hopeful, as if the very sun shone from her father's skin, the very life of the world itself.

He was a tall man, kind of plain, kind of handsome, kind of boring. Nothing really special. Peppered hair and glasses and bright, frosty blue eyes - a trait Sophie had inherited from him. He was wearing khaki shorts and a old tee-shirt, and Sophie could smell the scent of pine needles on the wind.

Her father. Her one and only.

What a happy time in her life this was...perhaps the _only _happy time.

"I'm going to teach you something important today, Soph," her father's voice was charming, happy, light as he turned towards her, grinning. "I think every girl ought to know this..." he chuckled slightly as he turned towards the truck next to them, rummaging around in the back.

Little Sophie cocked her head, and bigger Sophie, still encompassed in her younger self, felt it. "What are you gonna teach me?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "Today's a Saturday. Aren't we supposed to be having fun?"

Saturdays had been their days, the only days her father was off and had time to spare to see her. He'd worked at a plumbing company during the week, had fixed up their house and gone to church on Sundays. So Saturdays had been special. Sophie had looked forward to them.

All until he'd told her...all until he'd died...

"Take this, Soph," Sophie felt her little girl eyes widen as her father entrusted her with a long, shiny shotgun. "I'm going to teach you how to defend yourself."

Sophie felt her little self shake under the weight of the gun. "Am I big enough for this, daddy?" she asked, voice quivering. "I mean-"

But her father laughed, and Sophie's younger self relaxed. She didn't know why, but it felt almost important to be standing there, next to her father, holding a gun. It seemed like he was trying to help her grow up, trying to treat her like an older, bigger girl.

And for that she was happy. For that she was grateful. For that -

Older Sophie felt herself almost sink, falling further into her younger self. She knew that this was only a dream, but she didn't want to wake up. She didn't want to go back to life as it was now, with all its complications. She just wanted to stay here, inside her mind, inside this only happy moment.

She didn't want to wake up.

_Ever_.

Young Sophie grinned as her dad showed her how to hold the shotgun, how to aim, how to shoot. She felt like a pro when he finally stepped back, telling her to give it a try. She felt like she would be the best shooter ever when she finally pulled the trigger, aiming at a tree trunk across the lake, and -

The ground beneath her felt more than hard as she hit it, landing flat on her back, the wind knocked out of her, the gun heavy on her chest.

Sophie's father laughed good-naturedly as he smiled at her, kneeling down to make sure she was alright. "Good shot, Soph," he said, grinning at her again. "That was the best."

"But I fell down," little Sophie croaked out, the world still spinning above her. "I messed up."

She felt like she had failed. Like she would never get it right. Like she wasn't good enough.

But still, her father smiled. "That's alright," he said, offering her a hand to help her up, taking the shotgun away. "It happens in life. Things knock you down, and don't you expect to get up," his smile and laughing face had vanished then, and he'd looked at Sophie seriously. "I won't always be here to protect you, Soph. You have to promise me that when you get knocked down, you'll have the _strength_ to get back up."

Young Sophie nodded, promising, and older Sophie felt herself squirm in her younger shell, not liking the words at all.

He was asking her to promise that she'd never give up, never stop fighting. To promise that she'd keep going, even after he was gone - though of course she hadn't known he'd been leaving so soon, not then.

Older Sophie stared at her father through her younger self's shell for a few moments, trying to remember the happiness and not the pain, when she suddenly heard it -

A voice.

_"Wake up," _it said, its tone almost harsh. _"We have no time for this." _

Sophie gasped as she heard it, and suddenly everything around her vanished, leaving nothing but the inky blackness of her mind, and her - still in her six year old body. She tried to grasp onto the happy memory she'd just been faced with, not wanting it to slip away, but it receded into the darkness, leaving her alone.

Her father. He was gone.

_Again_.

_"Wake up," _the voice echoed in her head again, more insistent, more harsh, and Sophie wanted to strangle it.

"Who are you?" she called to it, wrapping her arms around her six-year-old self, still not willing to give her happy fantasy up. "Go away! Leave me alone!"

She didn't want to be reminded of what was waiting for her when she woke up - that world full of heartbreak, and loss, and...pain. She didn't want to break free of the shell of her younger, happier self. She simply wanted to drift back into the darkness, back into a world that didn't exist.

_"No," _the voice insisted, and Sophie felt a driving force reach out and grasp her, dragging her away from her younger shell. _"You have to wake up." _

Sophie felt the darkness around her shatter as she screamed, the shards of dark glass reflecting hopelessly forgotten memories as she cried out. And, as Sophie's eyes caught those memories, something began to happen in her heart. She saw it all -

Claire's face when she'd heard the news about her family.

Neil's sadistic grin as he prepared to strike her again.

The faces of Yusuke and Kuwabara, bright and laughing.

Her mother's unsatisfied look when Sophie told her she didn't want to go to Community College.

Claire's smile as she'd told Sophie it was okay, that she was going to die.

Hiei's bright, burning, unable-to-look-away-from eyes.

Her father, lying in a room at the hospital, flat-lined.

It was when Sophie saw these things, so greatly reflected through the black glass of her shattered mind, that she realized something -

She _didn't_ want to give up.

She had been trying to tell herself that she did. Tell herself that she didn't care, that she was tired of fighting, that just lying there and floating away would be easier than dealing with her problems - but she'd known it wasn't true. She'd known that, in reality, she hadn't wanted to give up at all, that she'd just been frustrated.

Her life wasn't easy. No one's was. Her friends from the Yu Yu Hakusho world were living proof of the fact. And even though Sophie had trials to deal with, the truth was...she still wanted to be there for them. For Claire.

Claire needed her, and no matter how difficult it was for Sophie to see her best friend wilt away, she knew that she wanted to be there for it. Though Sophie had sacrificed so much for her friend already, truthfully, she'd never regretted it, because Claire was one of the best things that had ever happened to her. If it hadn't been for Claire, Sophie would never have been able to live again, would have never been brought back from the black hole that had swallowed her after her father's death.

So, she couldn't give up, because people needed her - _Claire _needed her, and if she were to suddenly vanish, it would devastate her friend, and she didn't deserve that.

And not only that, but Sophie wanted a life, too.

Claire was going to die. There was no way around it, no magical potion she could drink that would suddenly restore her, no antidote to eat away the cancer before it ate her away instead. She was going to _die_. Sophie had to face that eventually, but afterwards...

After Claire was dead, Sophie wasn't sure what it was she wanted to do with her life, but she knew there was _something_. And whatever it was, it had to be better than this - being fearful, pushing others away, regretting every choice she made.

And so, Sophie pulled the pieces of herself back together, willing herself to come awake, knowing she had to take her first step towards healing.

* * *

"You stupid bitch!"

Neil's words were the first thing Sophie heard when her eyes finally fluttered open - harsh and commanding, full of spite. She sat up quickly as she saw him looming over her, feeling fear tremble through her, though she tried to shy it away.

She couldn't afford to be afraid. She had to face this, to confront it.

She was tired of running from Neil.

She was tired of running.

"Up now, are you?" Neil's sneer matched his fist, and was maybe even uglier. "Great. _Wonderful_. Time to -" as he went to swing at her, wanting to continue their game of punch and fall, something happened -

Sophie dodged out of the way, landing near the wide window that sat in the wall next to them, a glare fixed on her face. "No," she said, glaring at Neil's shocked and angered face. "I'm_ tired_ of this. Not anymore."

"Tired of it?" Neil's shock melted away, replaced by rage. "What makes you think you have the right to say that! I _own_ you, dammit! You _don't _have the right to-"

Sophie cut him off again, fists tightening. "Yes, I _do_," she said firmly, her voice only shaking in anger, not fear. "I have _every_ right, and I'm tired of it. No more. _Never again_."

She wouldn't let him win this game. She wouldn't let him steal her life. She wouldn't let him hurt her.

She didn't deserve it, and he didn't deserve her.

Neil's rage doubled two-fold, and Sophie was sure he was about to just lunge for her, try and kill her maybe, when suddenly she heard it -

The sound of breaking glass echoed in Sophie's ears as she gasped, feeling tiny shards hit her skin as the window behind her broke, raining into a million pieces. She barely had time to blink before she heard Neil gasp too, suddenly going still. Sophie's eyes widened as she looked up at him.

There was a blade, long and sharp, pressed to his neck, a murderous looking fire demon on the other end of it.

"Don't move," Hiei said, eyes as dark and as steely as Sophie had ever seen them. "or I'll kill you," she didn't think it was an empty threat.

Sophie felt Hiei's voice resonate through her ears as she watched him, something clicking in her mind. Something finally making sense...

_It was _his _voice. _Sophie realized with shocking intensity. _He was the one I heard earlier. .._

It had been Hiei's voice that had been haunting her, staying with her - yelling at her, basically (though it had been more of an annoyed yell than an angry one). It was Hiei who she'd been hearing in her head this whole time...

He must have tracked her, followed her to Neil's. He must have been trying to find her, but..._why_?

It didn't make sense, really. Sophie was sure that her friends had freaked out when they'd discovered that she was gone, and that they were looking for her (since Hiei being there disproved Neil's shoddy attempt at scaring her, his claim of blowing her mother's Inn into the sky). But what did that have to do with Hiei? He had never rallied to save anyone before...well, save Yukina, but she was his sister...

So why now? It just didn't make sense. It was almost as if -

"Please don't kill me!" Neil had the decency to beg for his life, which snapped Sophie out of her reverie, back into the real world.

She reached for Hiei's arm before she could even blink. "No," she said, her voice sounding hollow in her ears. "Don't kill him. _Please_."

Hiei must have been shocked by her request, because when he looked at her, his eyes were a mix of anger and confusion...as well as something else. And Sophie didn't blame him for being confused, and even angry. She couldn't believe what she'd just said, either.

She couldn't believe that, after all he had done to her, she actually didn't want to kill Neil. She couldn't believe that, after all he'd done to her, that she didn't actually want Neil dead, want him to suffer just as she had. She couldn't believe that, after all he'd done to her, all she wanted was for him to move on - to leave her alone, to have fate catch up with him and deal its own brand of punishment.

Maybe it was wrong. Maybe it was stupid of her to not kill him when she had the chance. Maybe she should have reconsidered, but she couldn't.

Because Neil, as stupid and as cruel as he was, didn't deserve that, and it wouldn't help him in the long run. If she were to have his life ended now (since Hiei seemed more than willing to do it), then he would never have to learn from and pay for his mistakes.

"How can you say that?" the words sounded almost strange coming from Hiei's mouth, though familiar at the same time, as if Sophie had heard him say them before. "After all this man has done to you, how can you want him to live?" his eyes were burning as he stared at her for an explanation, and suddenly Sophie understood.

Hiei _had_ said the same thing before, only not to her. He'd said it to Yukina, his sister.

_Do I remind him of her? _Sophie wondered as she stared back at Hiei, not quite able to voice her thoughts yet, stunned under that intense gaze of his. _Does he think that..._

She supposed she _was_ similar to Yukina, in some ways. She'd been mistreated, that was for sure. And it was almost funny that, when it came down to it, she didn't want the one who had caused her so much pain to die, just as Yukina had, but...

But she wasn't Yukina. And no matter what she did - no matter what Hiei did - nothing would be able to erase the pain she'd already been through. Nothing would ever be able to make up for what Neil had put her through.

She couldn't go backwards, only forwards, straight on to whatever it was that was her destiny. And if that meant making the hardest decision of her life - the decision to keep Neil alive, when she should have him dead - then so be it. That was a choice she was willing to make.

She was tired of running away and only trying to fight - she wanted to stand up now, fight for _real_.

"Don't kill him," Hiei didn't seem to notice that Sophie's hand was on his arm, but she gripped it tighter anyway, just as Neil whimpered, utterly pathetic, blood dripping down his chin from where the blade sat. "Please, don't kill him."

Hiei somehow looked less likely to kill then, though the bloodlust wasn't completely gone from his eyes. "_Why_?" he demanded, the word like a harsh slap.

"Because," Sophie simply said, her resolve strengthening. "if you kill him, then I'm going to be the one that's left. I'm going to be the one who has to deal with what happens afterwards. He'll just be dead."

Hiei's grip on his sword tightened, and Sophie had to wonder just what it was that he'd heard Neil thinking that first day, when he'd showed up out of the blue. It had to have been pretty bad. "That's kind of the point!" he snarled, but Sophie didn't flinch.

"No," she said, staring at him intently, all waver gone from her voice. "I mean, if you kill him, then I'm going to be the one left to suffer for it. He won't go down without a fight - if not from him, then from his family. I can't let that happen. They'll go after me, and after Claire..." Sophie felt a pain snake through her chest as she let go of Hiei's arm, stepping back. "I think he deserves it, and I wish I could say yes, but I just can't...It would be selfish."

Sophie wasn't as kind as Yukina. She _wanted_ Neil to die, if she was really honest with herself, all morals pushed aside. She wanted him to be gone, for his life to end, but it wouldn't do her or any of her friends any good. It would only cause pain, his death would, and she couldn't condone that.

No matter what Neil deserved, he had to live, if only for the sake of those Sophie cared about.

Hiei's eyes betrayed something almost sad as he finally backed down, taking his sword away from Neil's neck, but the secret vanished in an instant as he glared at the ground. "Fine," he said. "Let him live."

Sophie couldn't manage a "thank you", so she just smiled slightly, feeling like her legs were turning to jelly underneath her.

It had taken a lot out of her, this day had. She'd dealt with Neil, stood up to Hiei, relived the memory of her father. She felt like she had trounced so many trials in one day, and now everything was coming to a close...

Now she could go home and see Claire.

"Y-Y-You-" it was Neil's voice that shattered Sophie's silence as he pointed a finger at Hiei, shaking pathetically. "You tried to-"

Hiei just glared at him murderously again, grimacing. "Don't make me change my mind about sparing you," he threatened, and Neil promptly fainted, landing on the ground with a _thud_.

Sophie could have laughed, but didn't. It didn't seem like the time for chuckles.

Instead, she turned towards the door, sighing. "I don't know about you," she said to Hiei, suddenly very, very tired. "but I want to go home-"

It wasn't until the words left her mouth that she realized what she'd said.

Another revelation hit Sophie that day as she gasped, turning back to look at Hiei, the world feeling like it had shifted out from under her again.

Her friends from the Yu Yu Hakusho world, did they _have_ a home to return to? They'd appeared in her world so suddenly, without warning, and didn't even know how they'd got there. Who was to say that they could _get_ back? Who was to say that they weren't stuck in reality, forever?

Sophie was about to ask Hiei what he thought about the subject, but she didn't have to. As his eyes connected with hers, she could tell that he already knew what she wanted to ask - had probably already sensed it. And she saw something else, too. Something that nearly terrified her.

For once, Hiei looked uncertain.

* * *

_Yeah, you can take that last sentence any way you want to...Something changed in this chapter. I can't tell you what, but _something_..._

_As to my reason for this being late...well, I've been really busy, and my internet was being evil (grrr), so I just didn't have time. That, and this chapter was really hard to write. I don't know why, but I personally blame it on Hiei (because I can, and its kind of his fault). I guess I was just afraid that it was OOC, and then Sophie...well, I hope you guys liked it, anyway. Let me know what you thought! _

_I had a hard time putting curse words in here. I never use them personally, so I was writing and I was like "Did I even use that right? Did I even SPELL that right?" It was kind of funny...  
_

_Next chapter will be back to normal, and Claire's. _

_PLEASE REVIEW! I really want to know your thoughts on this chapter! . _

_~Foxgirl Ray  
_


	13. November 5th, 26 Days Left, Part Two

Hello, everyone!

Sorry for my lateness again! Things have been super crazy. But here is a chapter to hopefully satisfy your fanfiction cravings.

**Dedicated to: **_DoilyRox, Theamazinghollowgirl, heve-chan, DarksAngelOfTheNight, Delunatic, Sensitive, PiNkBuN17. You are all wonderful reviewers! I appreciate your feedback so much! _

Now...onto the story..._  
_

* * *

_November 5th (26 Days Left), Part Two_

"You look like hell."

The words rang through Claire's ears as her eyes focused in on her best friend Sophie, who had just walked in the door.

Yusuke was right, of course - Sophie _did_ look horrible. There was a swollen and bruised bump on her head, looking like a small, purplish mountain, and there were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. Her blonde hair was a mess. And not only that, but her mouth formed a jagged line, resembling a frown.

Sophie crossed her arms and glared at her otherworldly guest. "Thanks, Yusuke," she said, voice cold as ice. "I missed you, too."

Yusuke cringed from the glare, and Claire wanted to laugh, though she knew she couldn't.

She'd been so scared when Sophie had disappeared, she hadn't quite known what to do with herself. She'd tried pacing at first, but when she'd started to see dancing spots, Kurama had politely told her to sit down. Then she'd tried tapping her feet in a waiting game, but that had made her tired. And then -

"So...what _happened_ to you?" this question came from Kuwabara, directed towards Sophie as Hiei entered the room behind her, the door slamming in his wake. "Urameshi's right...you look..."

Sophie knew he didn't want to say "beat up", though the words were written all over his face.

Claire wasn't sure what exactly had happened to Sophie - where she'd been, even - but she knew one thing:

It probably had to do with Neil.

Claire had been secretly trying to buy Sophie's abusive, obsessive boyfriend off for a while now. Trying to convince him that, if she gave him enough money - enough work, enough time, enough anything! - that he would leave Sophie alone. She'd been trying to convince him that he would never get what he truly wanted from Sophie - ever, as long as he lived, no matter what he did - but...

But he'd never listened to her, and now this had happened.

_Again_.

Sophie seemed to stare straight through Kuwabara as she looked at him, eyebrows furrowed. Then her gaze shifted over to Claire, and Claire felt herself pale.

Her friend's gaze was like ice, pure and simple. It was frozen, frozen to the core.

Sophie barely even blinked before she started for the stairs.

"I'm tired," she announced, not bothering to look back to see if her friends were protesting. "I'm going to bed," her voice got quieter as she neared the top floor. "Goodnight."

Everyone stood there in shock for a moment as Claire watched Sophie's shadow trail up to her room, heard her bedroom door close behind her. Claire felt a gut-wrenching pain in her chest as she pictured the way her friend had looked, sounded...those icy eyes of hers...

"Guess she doesn't want to talk about it..." Yusuke admonished, though it was completely obvious. "So, then, what happened, H -"

Claire heard Yusuke's sigh as they all turned to ask questions, noticing that their fire demon friend was already gone.

* * *

When Claire ventured to find Sophie, she found her lying on her bed upstairs, sighing into her pillow and trying to pretend that she was asleep, not even having changed out of her two-day-old clothes.

Claire closed the door behind her as she took a tentative step towards Sophie. "Soph?" she asked, the name more of a question than a statement. "Are you okay?"

She knew in truth that it was a very stupid question to ask - because of course Sophie wasn't okay, what with that horrible bump on her head - but Claire wasn't sure what else she should say. She didn't know what had happened, and wouldn't know until Sophie told her...if she _did_ tell her...

Sophie seemed so worried about upsetting Claire, worsening her already worse disease, that she wouldn't say much of anything about how she was feeling anymore.

Sophie simply lay there for a moment, probably trying to still fake her sleep, before she picked her head up and looked at Claire, her eyes just as icy as before.

Claire froze when she saw the look, something about it bothering her.

Claire had seen Sophie look fierce before - it honestly wasn't really anything new - but there was something about the ice in her eyes and the big bruise on her head, coupled together, that bothered Claire. Something about it that was almost..._creepy_.

What had _happened_ to Sophie?

"Was it Neil?" Claire found the words coming out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Was it...?" and then she trailed off, not having to ask, because the answer was in Sophie's eyes.

No.

And yes.

It was both.

Claire felt a shiver ripple up her spine as she sat down on the bed next to Sophie, who dragged herself into a sitting position. She almost didn't want to know what had happened, but then again...

"It was Neil," Sophie's voice sounded stranger than before, strangled somehow. "And it was my mother. Both of them," Claire held back her gasp at the news, her eyes going wide. "Neil said he rigged the house to blow, but it obviously wasn't true. No shocker there. As far as why they did it, I think my mom did it to get back at me for making her angry, and Neil..." Sophie sighed as she ran a hand through her ragged blonde hair. "Well, who knows why he does anything," but of course, Sophie and Claire both knew Sophie knew why.

She's always known why.

It was because Neil, as abusive and crazy (at times) as he was, somewhere, deep down, really _did_ love Sophie.

Sure, it was an obsessive kind of love, but love nonetheless. And people who love want to be loved in return, though Neil truthfully knew that was never going to happen.

It had never been possible. Even from day one.

"I really don't want to talk about it," Claire saw Sophie sigh again as she grabbed a pillow and stuffed it under her shin, resting her head on it as she stared at the wall. "I really don't want to talk about _any_ of it..." Claire knew what she meant by that, but she couldn't help asking-

"What about Hiei?" the words rolled off her tongue like biting liquid, almost stinging.

Claire could have swore she saw Sophie stiffen at that, though her friend was looking at the wall still, and it was hard to read her frosty blue eyes. "What about him?" she grunted a moment later, grimacing at something.

Claire didn't want to give up on her question. "Well," she said, trying to measure her friend's reaction. "He _saved_ you, didn't he?"

Sophie's eyes were boring into the paint now, and Claire was surprised it didn't catch on fire from her friend's intensity. "In a manner of speaking," she said, and then turned to look at Claire, eyes still frosty. "But..." she started another sentence, and then frowned, looking away again.

Claire, for her part, was confused by this, not quite sure what it was that was happening. She'd been convinced that one of her friends had gone to save her best friend from Neil, but from the sounds of things, that wasn't entirely what had happened. And then there was the strange way that Sophie kept staring at the wall, almost like she...

And then Claire got it, more words spilling out of her mouth.

"You like him," she said, and this time Sophie turned to look at her, face turning strangely red. "Oh my gosh, you _like_ him."

It was crazy, though somehow routine.

It was too much to hope for, though it shouldn't have been hoped for at all.

And yet it was also strangely...perfect.

Sophie's red face turned into a glare. "Don't say it like _that_!" she hissed, nails digging into her pillow as if it would silence Claire. "You make me sound like some stupid fangirl!"

Claire hadn't thought of that.

"Well...aren't you?" Claire had meant it as more of a joke, considering that before her friends had flown in from Yu Yu Hakusho, her and Sophie had been fans of the show, but she could see that Sophie took it more seriously, and added: "Well, _aren't_ you?"

But Sophie shook her head, staring at Claire for a moment before looking at the wall again, as if it held all the answers and would tell her what it was she was feeling. Claire sat there as Sophie stared, noting how her friend looked almost...pensive.

Was she _serious_ about this?

_Guess so..._ Claire thought as Sophie searched for her words, feeling strangely happy. _She does _seem_ serious. _

Which was weird, and made Claire extremely happy. Because in all of the time that Claire had known her, Sophie had never taken the time to actually like a guy before, and the fact that that was happening now meant that Sophie was starting to move on, to grow away from the things that had tormented her for so long.

She had stood up to her mom about college.

She had faced Neil and lived.

And now, though her feelings may never be reciprocated, she had a crush on a guy.

"I'm not like a fangirl..." when Sophie spoke her words were slow, calculated, and even a bit...surprised. "And I know it's not like it would amount to anything. I wouldn't even hope for that. It's just..." her icy eyes darkened as she turned to look at Claire. "It's just, thinking you know someone and actually getting to know them are two different things..."

Claire let those words sink into her subconscious as Sophie stared at the wall some more, thinking as well, and she couldn't help thinking how right her friend was.

Thinking you knew someone and knowing them for real were two different things. People thought they knew people all of the time, when they really knew nothing about them. It didn't just stretch to the Yu Yu Hakusho world, either, it was all over.

A teenage girl who is "in love" with a movie star and reads all about them in her teen magazines may think she knows them, and then meets them at a behind the scenes tour, and find out she knows nothing about them at all. A middle age woman may meet a man on an online dating site, talk to him for a few minutes, and then think she knows him, only to actually meet him a few weeks later, and find out she doesn't know him at all.

A college girl may suddenly meet her favorite character from her favorite anime, and think she knows them, and then actually spend time around them, and find out she does not.

Thinking about it, Claire realized that Sophie was right - their favorite characters from Yu Yu Hakusho weren't anything like they'd thought they'd be. Sure, they were similar to the people that had been dancing across the TV screen for years, but in real life they had a more..._human_ side to them. They weren't simply puppets on a screen, or actors reading lines.

They were _real_ _people_.

Claire and Sophie had spent years writing fanfictions and having day dreams about their favorite cast, but now it was different. Because in the fictions and day dreams, no one had had a say in what happened accept the writer or dreamer.

But real life wasn't like that. In real life, people did what they wanted, said what they had to say, and acted how they would always act. In real life, nothing was a script, and there was no telling what would happened.

In real life, people were _real_, not fiction.

Which meant...

"It doesn't matter what I think," Claire had to blink before she heard Sophie, who was sighing now as she ran another hand through her grungy hair, looking suddenly tired. "I'm sure they'll disappear, anyway, once..." Claire saw her friend's face pale as Sophie looked up at her, eyes suddenly scared and frightened.

Claire knew what Sophie wanted to say, though she knew her friend couldn't say it.

_"I'm sure they'll disappear anyway, once you're gone..." _

Sophie had it in her mind that once Claire was dead, their friends from the YuYuverse would simply disappear, vanishing in thin air just as soon as they'd appeared in the first place. Sophie had it in her mind that, even if she did like Hiei, it really wouldn't matter, because soon, he would be gone.

_But..._ Claire felt a hardness in her heart as she bit her lip._ But I want them..._

But she didn't _want_ them to go. She'd been hoping they would stay, even after she was gone. It was the plot she'd concocted that day, at the fair, when she'd heard Sophie's song ringing through her head. It was the thought she'd hoped that Hiei had heard her thinking, hoped that he'd thought about himself.

She wanted them to stay, even after she was gone. She didn't want to have to leave Sophie all alone.

But...even though she wanted them to stay, would it even be fair to ask that of them? Would they even _want_ to continue to remain in reality? Or would they want to go home?

Claire didn't know, and, as Claire stared into Sophie's scared and frightened and suddenly pained eyes, she felt like any hope for her friend's happiness had just vanished.

* * *

_Alrighty then, there you are..._

**NOTE:**_ I know some of you are going to ask, so I'll just clarify now: No, I did not put this fic under the "romance" genre (actually, one of you asked about it last chap). I was originally going to, and add a smidget of romance to the fic (nothing too much, really), but the other genres (hurt/comfort and drama) seemed more appropriate. However, if you guys are willing to see a little dash of romance in here, I wouldn't mind writing it. And if not...well, some plans can't be changed. Heh heh heh...But anyway, so no, this fic isn't intended to be a "romance". If it was a real "romance", I think it would ruin the story. :( _

_That said, I'm very interested to see what you thought of this chapter! Obviously, I have a better time writing Sophie, which is why it's so short compared to the last chap, but I think Claire's POV is important too...especially in later chapters..._

_Anywho, PLEASE REVIEW! Not only are the plot bunnies being evil again, but I'm really wanting to know what you guys think! ;)  
_


	14. November 6th, 25 Days Left

_Hello, everyone! _

_Here is a new chapter! (Finally, I know!) _

_Dedicated to: theamazinghollowgirl, DoilyRox, and PiNkBuN17. Your reviews are much appreciated! _

_Oh, speaking of reviews, we're almost at fifty! Yay! Please be sure to review so I can make that goal...then on to a hundred... ;) _

* * *

_November 6th (25 Days Left)_

"Claire?"

The word rung through Sophie's mind as she blinked, looking around, trying to figure out just where it was that her friend had gone to.

"Claire?"

The word seemed to echo around Sophie like a never-ending ring as her eyes darted around the damp and dark space, finding nothing but shadows.

"Claire?"

Sophie stopped dead as she neared what she assumed was the middle of...wherever she was. She felt a shiver travel up her spine, suddenly cold, as mist started to swirl around, making her clothes wet as it coated them. She hugged her arms around her chest as she stepped towards a shadow to her right, still trying to find her best friend.

"Claire!"

Nothing answered her, but the world cleared just then, revealing something that stole the breath from Sophie's lungs -

They were all around her, sticking out of the ground, smoke swirling around them, dead and dried leaves and plants and flowers coating them.

Stones.

Big stones -

Big stones with names on them.

Sophie felt suddenly sick as the world illuminated itself a bit more, some of the darkness fading, replaced by a pale and grey light. She reached out towards one of the stones as she crouched down, level with it, her eyes tracing the words before her hands could.

_Claire Sinclaire _

_Born: September 5th, 1990_

_Died: November 30th, 2010_

_Many sorrows and memories_

Nausea wracked through Sophie's system as she stared at the words, not making sense of them. But then, it hit her, and she felt tears prickling at her eyes, stinging them.

Claire.

She was dead.

She was _dead_!

Claire...

Sophie's eyes prickled even more as tears streamed over, but then she felt something strange - something sticky, on her hand.

Sophie pulled her palm away from the weathered gravestone just in time to see blood trickling down her hand, thick and gross and coating. She screamed and stumbled back, landing in the dying grass beneath her, and that's when she saw it -

It was Claire. She was lying in the grass in front of the gravestone, sprawled at an odd angle. There was blood everywhere on her, looking more like sweat, and her white and deadened face was staring at Sophie, her unblinking eyes wide, but not seeing anything.

"Why?" Sophie heard her ask, mouth moving and dripping with blood, though it shouldn't have been able to. "Why didn't you save me, Sophie?"

Sophie wished she could tell her why. Wished she knew a good reason. But she just couldn't.

Because there _was_ no good reason, as hard as she searched.

But she tried. "I wanted to - " she began, but Claire's unblinking eyes bored into her all the more.

"Why didn't you save me, Sophie?" she asked yet again, and then blood coated Sophie's vision, Claire's unblinking eyes staring through her yet again, and a scream erupted from her, just as darkness took its toll.

But

one

lingering

question

remained...

_"Why didn't you save me?" _

_

* * *

_

Sophie shot out of bed as she woke up from her dream, managing to cover her mouth before she screamed, every inch of her feeling like it was on fire - in horrible, horrible pain.

Why did she keep seeing these things? Wasn't it enough that her best friend was dying, that she had to see her friend go through all this pain? Why should she have to see torment, too - torment that wasn't even real, only an imagining of her mind?

That is...if it _was_ all just her imagination...

Sophie fought with herself to calm down, and, after a moment, she was able to actually remove her hand from her mouth without fear of screaming. She all but fell out of bed as her eyes searched the room she was in, frantically looking for Claire.

Sophie found her friend a moment later, lying in her bed on the other side of the room, breath uneven and strange, but breathing all the same.

It was okay.

Claire was fine.

_Everything_ was fine...

Sophie silently cried as she backed away, hand over mouth again, wondering whether or not she would ever sleep again. The images from her dream were haunting her now, as she grabbed a robe and exited the little room, closing the door softly behind her, but Sophie tried to keep them out.

She didn't want to think of those things. She didn't want to feel the pain.

It was fine. _Everything_.

Claire was in her bed, asleep, still perfectly alive, and everything was...fine...

Sophie kept repeating those words to herself as she found her way to a little used room that used to be a library, where, next to an empty bookshelf, there sat a long and comfortable wide window seat. And, as she sat down and stared out into the night, her eyelids starting to droop again, she felt like she almost believed the words she was reciting, that she almost believed everything was fine...

Yes, fine.

_"Why are you doing this to me!"_

Everything was fine...

* * *

When Sophie woke, she was lying in a hospital bed, the light of the room around her soft and dim, the TV overhead blaring some sports game-probably baseball, knowing her dad.

Wait...what? Her _dad?_

When Sophie blinked again, she realized she recognized the room she was lying in, the room that probably looked like every other hospital room known to man. It was the same size as all the others she had seen, with boring pictures on the wall-not exactly the type of environment you wanted to try and get well in-yet there was something..._different_ about it...

And that different thing was the man lying in the bed next to hers, the man that looked exactly like her father.

"Daddy..." when the word came out of Sophie's mouth, it felt childish, and that's when she realized it -

She was a child again, in another dream, stuck inside the shell of her younger self.

Accept, when she looked into the mirror across from her, sitting on the wall opposite the bed, she didn't look as young as she had last time she'd "seen" her dad.

Her blonde and curly hair was in knots, bundled up like a horrible and un-untangleable mess. The clothes she wore weren't dirty, but they weren't pressed, and looked old and dingy compared to what she normally had put herself in. And her shoes were gone, somewhere on the hospital room's floor, leaving nothing but the socks on her feet. That, and she looked...older...worn..._sad_...

She wasn't sick, but she was lying in the hospital bed. It had been empty, and she'd wanted to stay. She'd wanted to help take care of her dad, since her mother didn't seem to care.

Sophie's mother hadn't seemed to care at all lately, not since they'd found out her dad was sick. They still hadn't told Sophie what was wrong with him, but her mother knew, and now she stayed away...out late at night...coming home without her senses...strange men lingering around the house...

But Sophie, she liked the stay with her dad, when she could. She usually came by after school and stayed, lying on the bed until the next morning, when she'd travel downstairs to get on the buss and go back. And sometimes, she wouldn't neven go to school. Sometimes, she didn't even care.

What did it matter, anyway?

"Sophie..." her dad's voice was strange...strangled, as if he couldn't breathe, but Sophie's younger body hopped out of her bed anyway, the older her inside her younger self feeling like it had vanished in light of this strange, dreamlike memory. "I have...something to tell you..." Sophie's little body landed next to her dad as he rasped out the sentence, and she looked down at him, finding it painful to even glimpse.

This man in the bed, he didn't look like her father.

He seemed like a stranger, though she knew that she knew him, that he was actually there with her...that he was real. He looked like a stranger, his face all big and bloated - puffy, like he'd been allergic to something. His eyes were devoid of most color, and he could barely blink.

The whole thing was painful - painful to look at, painful to think about, and, Sophie was sure, painful to _feel_.

"What is it, daddy?" Sophie leaned towards her father, her voice a whisper. "What do you have to tell me?"

Inside the smaller Sophie, the bigger Sophie fidgeted, knowing full well what he was about to say, knowing full well what was about to ensue, how her younger self would react. But, try as she might, she couldn't seem to pull herself away. She couldn't seem to extract herself from her younger body.

It looked like she was going to have to endure this.

_Again_.

"I'm sick, Sophie," her father's voice was raspy, and his breathing was more labored than normal...and Sophie was scared. "I'm sick, and I'm going to..." he paused a moment, little Sophie holding in a breath. "I'm going to...to die, Sophie. I'm going to die."

"D-Die?" the word didn't make sense to little Sophie. She couldn't comprehend it. "What do you mean? You're here, in the hospital, you can't - they can't let you die!" older Sophie felt tears pouring down her younger self's cheeks, and she felt like she herself was crying.

It wasn't fair. It shouldn't have been happening. He shouldn't have had to die.

"I'm...sorry, Sophie," her dad sounded tired now, more worn than before, and little Sophie felt panic as the _beep, beep, beep,_ of his heart monitor slowed drastically. "There's nothing...they can do...I have..." he breathed in one last breath. "...leukemia..."

And then nothing, nothing at all...

The heart monitor stopped beaping, and little Sophie stared.

The nurses rushed in, and little Sophie stared.

They tried to revive him, and little Sophie stared.

Time of death was announced, and little Sophie stared...

And older Sophie stared.

This was it, her biggest secret, the one thing that plagued her more than anything else - Claire, she was dying of the same thing that had stolen someone else from Sophie - the same thing that had taken away her father.

"Why are you doing this to me!" little Sophie's words echoed through the imaginary hospital room, and the nurses finally realized she was there. "Why are you doing this! Why! I don't understand!" little Sophie kicked and fought with the doctors as they tried to drag her away, more tears spoiling down her cheeks. "How can you! It isn't fair!" and older Sophie wept, too, joining in the cry.

She was right, it _wasn't_ fair.

The two Sophie's cried out as the nurses tried to shush them, but they didn't hear anybody. All they could hear was the loud noise of the flat-lined heart monitor. All they could feel was the sadness and the rage running through their veins. All they could see was -

At first, when the Sophies looked up, all they could see was their dead father, lying there in the hospital bed. But then, the scene changed, and it wasn't their father anymore...but Claire.

"Why didn't you save me, Sophie?" she asked once again, looking like a haunted corpse now, blood splattering her once again. She reached forward, towards Sophie, with a bloodied hand. "Why? Why didn't you -"

And Sophie screamed as darkness started to wrap around her, strange, bloodied hands reaching for her from all angles, Claire's own bloodied face still staring, still repeating that same sentence. As Sophie screamed, she wasn't little and bigger Sophie anymore, but simply herself, lost in a maze of sadness.

As Sophie screamed, she heard something, at the edge of her conciousness -

_"Wake up!" _

It was the same voice as before - the voice she knew to be Hiei's - only this time, it didn't exist inside her mind, but outside of it.

_"Come on! Wake up!" _

Sophie felt herself scream again as the bloodied hands gripped at her, their fingernails now turning to claws, tearing at her skin. And also, something else..._somewhere_ else...gripping the edges of her arms.

"Wake up, Sophie," Hiei said, and then everything vanished.

* * *

Sophie felt herself shaking and sweating as soon as her eyes opened, and she found Hiei's gaze immediately.

"Wh-What happened?" she asked, and then looked away, feeling a strange sort of pang as she was met with the brightness of his eyes. "I..." she didn't have the strength to finish the sentence, so she slumped back to the wall behind her, shaking again.

She was still at the Inn, still sitting on the window seat, yet she felt like she was a million miles away.

"You had a nightmare," the answer wasn't a question, and thought Sophie wasn't looking at Hiei, she could he was curious. "What about?"

The reason why he would be curious as to what she'd had as nightmare about was beyond Sophie, but it didn't really matter, because she wasn't about to tell him, anyway. In fact, she wasn't even going to stay there. She was just going back to bed, away from him.

It may have sounded childish, but she really didn't want to be around him right now, not after what had happened that day...after...

Sophie closed her eyes for a moment, stopping that thought before it could start. The last thing she wanted was for Hiei to catch onto her thoughts, get wind of what she and Claire had been talking about earlier. Not only would it would embarassing, it would also be..._unnecessary_.

Hiei didn't need to know that she liked him. Because it didn't matter, not really. Because, just as she'd told Claire, she had a feeling that, once her friend was gone, he'd be moving on anyway...along with the rest of his friends.

And for that, she wanted to hate him.

She _really_ wanted to hate him, though she couldn't.

Sophie wasn't that different from any other Yu Yu Hakusho fan. Of course she'd wanted to meet her favorite characters. Of course she'd wanted her life to be like a fanfiction story. Of course she'd wanted all of that ridiculous, crappy romance that made those fanfiction stories so "good". Of course she'd wanted that kinf of life...

Sophie wasn't really that different. She liked Hiei, along with another thousand girls (and guys) around the planet. She liked his personality, how he could be indifferent, how he always seemed to make snippy remarks, and to surprise her. She liked his strange, spiky hair, which seemed to be too gravity defying to be natural. And, of course, she liked his eyes - which, if you stared at them for long enough, could nearly hypnotize you.

But, that had all been before she'd met him. And it had all been...kind of shallow.

Because now, she didn't think so much about those things. Now, they didn't seem to matter as much, because now, what she quite possibly like best about Hiei was that -

He was _strong. _

Of course, this was obvious when you thought about it. It was Hiei, after all. But not only was he strong physically, he was also strong otherwise...he'd been through a lot, things that Sophie never would have or could have even thought of trying to experience, and yet he'd never given up. Not yet. And it was apparent by the way he acted, when she'd actually met him - more so than it had been on the anime.

He was strong, and that was something she couldn't say for herself.

Sophie wished she could have the kind of strength Hiei had - the kind of strength to face anything, and stare it in the face - but she didn't. And she probably never would. Because she never faced her problems head-on. All she did was run from them...

And she couldn't even run that fast.

"Claire is going to die," when Hiei spoke, Sophie stiffened, the words hitting her like a large, overbearing wave. But when she looked up at him, blinking, he didn't seem fazed...in fact, he looked more serious than normal, if that were possible. "You should just accept it - sooner rather than later," Sophie found it rather strange that he was giving her advice - if that was what you wanted to call it, since it sounded more like he was just disgusted, and lecturing her - but...

But he was _right. _

Claire was going to die. Soon. There was no way around it, nothing Sophie could do to make it go away, no magic wand she could wave. And the sooner Sophie accepted this fact, the sooner she could move on...though she wished she didn't have to...

She wished that Claire would be alright. She wished that she didn't have to lose another person. She wished that she didn't have to through that pain again. She wished -

"Stop it," Hiei's voice cut through Sophie's thoughts again. "You're not making this any easier by wishing for pointless things," his eyes narrowed as he grimaced at her, and Sophie glared at him.

Why did he know, anyway? Sophie was the one losing someone, not him! How did he have any right to tell her what to be upset about?

"Sh-shut up!" Sophie ground her teeth together as she glared harder, jumping from her seat. "I don't have to listen to you! I think I know what's best!"

Hiei was on his feet too, glare cold. "Obviously not," he said in a tone that made Sophie's anger flare.

"You don't know anything!" the blonde girl glared harder, backing away, fists tightening as the urge to break something hit her. "You just got here, and I've been here all along, and - " Sophie had to bite her tongue to keep from crying, something she definintely didn't want to do again in front of Hiei. "And you don't know anything!" the last part was a pitiful recitation, but Sophie didn't care.

Because she was right, he _didn't _know anything.

He'd asked her about her nightmare, which meant he obviously (for once) hadn't been listening in on her thoughts, and that he knew nothing about what she was hiding. He didn't know that Sophie had lost someone to Claire's disease before. He didn't know what a hell Sophie's younger life had been - and Sophie really didn't care.

Because she didn't _want_ him to know any of it. Because, though she doubted he would feel sorry for her, she didn't want to risk the chance, anyway.

Because, still...she just wanted him to _go away_.

She just wanted them all to go away.

It had been hard enough when she'd barely known the characters from the YuYuverse. Then she'd just thought they were in the way, like dead weight, dragging her down with problems as she tried to take care of Claire. But now...now that she was _friends_ with them, it was harder for her than before. Now, she was back to wishing they'd just dissappear, leave her alone, so that she didn't have more pain to deal with...so that she didn't have one more thing to lose...

Because, if she let herself get attached to them any more than she already had, it would be one more goodbye she had to say.

Sophie could have swore she saw Hiei's eyes flicker strangely then, as he stuffed his hands in his long coat pockets in a silently infuriating way, obviously expecting her to say more, but she didn't have a chance to ask him if he'd heard what she was thinking. She froze, not sure what to do - what to say.

She knew the questions she wanted to know the answers to, but she didn't want to ask to find out. She knew what she was thinking, and how much easier talking would make things, but she didn't want to make the effort. And she also knew that she couldn't keep dodging things - especially Hiei - forever, but she didn't want to give up trying - because it was easier than telling the truth, than trying to change.

And so, once again, she did the thing she always did...the thing she was best at -

_She ran away_.

* * *

_Sophie: run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!...er...Woman! _

_Yes, I have no idea where that came from..._

_Anyway, so that was chapter...erm...something! I hope you liked it! _

_For those of you who were hoping for something lighter this chap, sorry. I just felt I had to put this in here. But, this ends a section of the story, and the next few chaps should actually be lighter, so hopefully that makes you guys happy! _

_And good news - this is now a slight romance fic! WoOoOo! So, expect that...sometime in the future... _

_Anyway, as always, thank for reading! And PLEASE REVIEW! You know how happy it makes me!  
_


	15. November 7th, 24 Days Left

_Hello, everyone! I'm alive! XD _

_Sorry this took sooooo long for me to get out. The holidays were crazy as always, and I was really busy, so I couldn't work on this. I am going to try and finish it though, so please bare with me. The updates may come slower and be shorter, but I'll do my best to see it through til the end!_

_Please enjoy the chapter!_

_

* * *

_

November 7th (24 Days Left)

When Claire woke the next morning, her feet and hands felt overly cold. She drew in a shaky breath as she looked up at the ceiling, knowing things were coming too soon, knowing that it was already too late.

Time was ticking by too fast, and she could feel it. She was already waning away, unable to breathe.

How much longer did she have, before she disappeared entirely?

Claire struggled to sit up in her bed, not asking for any help, since Sophie was asleep anyway. She smiled slightly as she heard the sound of her best friend's breathing echo softly through the room, sounding like a melody. She swung her feet off of the bed as she took in another breath, feeling the air rush into her lungs slower now than ever before.

How much time did she have left?

As Claire crossed to the closet to get some clothes, she thought about her Yu Yu Hakusho friends, who were no doubt still sleeping, the clock reading four-thirty A.M. Again she wondered what they would do when she was gone, if they would stay with Sophie.

She again found herself wishing they would, though she knew it was wrong. Something in her heart just couldn't let go of the idea, couldn't admit that it would be hard for them.

After all, she knew if they were to stay, they would like it, at least for a little while. They wouldn't have to worry about fighting or saving the world, and they could just be normal people for once, though she wasn't sure if that was what they wanted or not.

How could you get used to being normal, after all, if you were so used to being extraordinary?

Claire didn't know, because normal was all she'd ever been, since they day she was born. Even before she'd gotten sick, she'd been normal, just like her parents had before her. She'd never made exceptional grades, she'd never gotten an award. She'd never even been asked on a date.

But her friends...they were amazing, whether or not it caused them pain. They could do just about anything if they truly set their minds to it, and Claire felt almost jealous of them for that, wishing she could do the same.

But no, she couldn't. She barely had any time left, and the one thing she wanted to accomplish before she was gone she wasn't sure she would be able to do, anyway.

Claire sighed as she finished getting ready, throwing an old tee-shirt over her head and jeans around her waist. She brushed her hair out of her face as she tiptoed past the sleeping Sophie as best she could, wobbling on her legs, feeling the outside air calling to her.

She wanted to see the sun rise just once before she was dead.

Claire carefully made her way down the stairs, hearing echoes of Yusuke and Kuwabara's snoring as she gripped the railing next to her harshly, a small smile curving onto her lips. She searched for signs of movement downstairs before she finished making her way to the first floor, not really wanting to run into anyone at the moment, but the front room greeted her with emptiness.

When Claire opened the front door, a cool breeze met her, making her vision go blurry. She gripped the edge of the door for a moment, waiting for the feeling to pass, before she stepped out into the day.

It looked like it might rain, the edges of sun that were already starting to peek out of the darkness giving off an almost grayish tint. Claire was about to step off of the porch towards the woods when she saw a faint flow of fabric, heard a strangely amused voice.

"You're up early, I see," the voice said, and Claire felt her skin crawl with happiness. She turned her head to see none other than Kurama standing near, smiling slightly as the first rays of the sunrise barely illuminated his face, making him look more foxlike than ever.

Claire laughed at this, though even to her it sounded fake. "I, uh, couldn't sleep," she lied, feeling her vision swirl dizzy when she looked at Kurama, though she didn't think it necessarily had anything to do with him.

Things were happening too fast. There wasn't enough time.

How much longer would she stay awake?

"Claire, are you feeling alright?" Kurama's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she barely saved herself from staggering, trying to hide her ill feelings. He stepped over to her with worried though analytic eyes, reaching out to touch her arm.

Claire, for one, didn't want to go back inside, so she nodded, content to just stand there and smile at him. Kurama didn't look satisfied with her answer, but she was grateful when he let it slide, instead turning his eyes towards the rising sun.

The two watched the sun rise in silence for the next minute or so, the world coming alive before their eyes, though Kurama never left Claire's side and seemed strangely stiff the whole time, as if worried that something might happen.

Claire smiled as she thought about the person standing next to her, the person who she now knew so much better than before. Though she was dying and everything was uncertain and painful, she was glad that she had been able to meet him before she passed on. There was something comforting about him, though he also put her on edge, like she'd somehow known him all of her life...

Once the sun had risen, coloring the world with happiness and stinging Claire's eyes, she found herself asking: "Kurama, do you think you'll leave?"

"What do you mean?" Kurama seemed almost surprised by the question, though, when she turned to look at him, there was something in his eyes that told her he knew exactly what she meant.

Claire smiled at that as a coldness seeped into her from the wind, glad for his kindness. "I mean," she said. "do you think you'll leave when I'm gone?"

Kurama didn't exactly reply; instead his lips pursed into a thin line.

He knew he couldn't convince her that she wasn't going to die. He knew they were past all that now.

"If you could, would you stay or go back home?" Claire knew what his answer would be, but somehow she still wanted to ask. She reached out to grip his arm as she swayed, and he held her steady with a hand. "You're probably going to say that you'd go back, but..."

But what? What was it that she was hoping for? For him to say no, that he'd stay anyway?

Kurama sighed as the breeze blew, ruffling his bright red hair. "You're right, I would return home, though it is awfully tempting to stay where I'm at," he cast her a small little smile then. "There would be certain advantages to not being _me_, such as not having to deal with a past that keeps coming back, though I know that I can't. It's not that my family needs me - in fact they probably would be better without me, but..." he trailed off then, looking back up at the sky, at the sun.

"But _what_?" Claire wondered, again feeling woozy, but wanting to know.

What was so wonderful that he had to go back to? People were constantly expecting things of him, relying on him more than they should have. He always had the weight of the world on his shoulders, so why go back?

What was there to miss in a world like that?

Kurama smiled again, shocking Claire from her thoughts. "They may not need me truthfully, but I do think that _I_ need _them_," he admitted, and then Claire understood.

It wasn't enough to just get what you wanted, to have a life free of worries. If the people you cared about weren't beside you, then it was hard to go on.

Kurama was lucky in that way - he could choose not to say goodbye to those he cared about, unlike Sophie, who would loose Claire anyway.

_But Sophie is strong, and she doesn't have to have me by her side anymore. _Claire reminded herself as the world started to turn gray, her limbs feeling colder and colder. _And if I'm gone she can start to move on, which is what she really needs... _

Claire couldn't ask her YuYu friends to stay, and now, standing there with Kurama, she felt that that was okay. She knew it would be hard on Sophie to loose her, but she also knew that her best friend could take it, and that in the end, she would come out stronger. And maybe then she'd find someone else she could rely on, someone who she could stay with - who may not have needed her, but who would be able to help her see through the darkness.

Claire sensed that Kurama was about to ask her something, but then her ears started to ring, turning fuzzy. She felt fear grip at her as she turned to look at him, seeing his emerald green eyes, though she pushed the fear aside so she could speak one last time.

"You have to promise me something," she said, smiling, before Kurama could even utter a word. "When I'm gone, please don't forget to remember me," she saw Kurama's eyes widen, and then the world turned black, and she was tumbling, falling again...

Only this time, she wasn't so sure she would wake up.

The end was coming way too fast.

* * *

_Well, there's the new chapter! I hope you liked it! Sorry it was a little short and took so long... _

_This chapter was inspired by the Carrie Underwood song "Don't Forget To Remember Me", which shall make a guest appearance before the end of the fic!_

_Anyway, please review! XD Thank you! _

_~Ray_


	16. November 8th

**PLEASE READ THE IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE BOTTOM! **

**Thank you, and onto the story... **

* * *

November 8th

Sophie's feet were aching, yet still she paced, not knowing what else to do.

They were at the hospital, waiting, and she was scared out of her mind. Her YuYu friends were off getting food, so she was stuck with Hiei, who was leaning against the wall beside her, eyes closed...not that she really minded. It was quieter with just him around, though the quiet gave her room to think, and that was the last thing she wanted.

Things were happening so fast, and she wasn't ready. And it didn't seem fair, because she was supposed to have more time.

"Stop your pacing," Hiei's voice was commanding, and Sophie stopped immediately at the sound of it, purely by instinct. "You'll wear your frail human self down," Sophie grit her teeth when he said this, though she knew it was true, and she cast him a glare.

Hiei, however, didn't see it. Or, if he did, he didn't care, because he didn't open his eyes, still leaning against the wall.

So, Sophie started pacing again, thoughts rushing through her mind. And as she started pacing Hiei's eyes opened, burning bright.

"You're being stubborn," he said in a bored tone, though there was also annoyance mixed in. "Why can't you simply listen?"

Sophie shot him another glare without stopping her pacing, and he grimaced at her in turn. "Oh, and you've never been stubborn?" she asked, and the grimace turned to pursed lips. "I'm only pacing because I'm worried. Aren't you?" she knew the question was stupid, and what response it would get, but she asked anyway.

When Yusuke had burst into her room that morning, yelling at her to get up, Sophie had nearly fallen out of bed, throwing a pillow at him. But he'd been worried, face a wrinkle of furrowed eyebrows. And when she'd gotten to the living room, hearing the ambulance, everyone else had looked worried, too - well, everyone accept for Hiei.

The fire demon simply stared at her, face blank as a white sheet, and Sophie felt anger build up in her chest, knowing she'd been right.

Of course he wasn't worried. He didn't worry about anyone - or, if he did, he never showed it.

"You'd be stupid to think I'm worried," Hiei replied, eyes burning holes through her. But then he sighed. "I already know what's going to happen, so there's no use in worrying," Sophie stopped pacing then, and he looked at her harshly. "You know what's going to happen, too," the comment hit her hard, and she suddenly felt sick.

Yes, she was afraid that she knew what was going to happen, was afraid that it would finally come to pass. And she couldn't deal with it, not yet. She wanted to continue to ignore it, continue to think that Claire was going to be alright, even if it was only for a moment.

Sophie didn't say anything else to Hiei. She simply looked at him and then finally sat down in one of the waiting room's uncomfortable chairs, the back of her head pressed against the wall behind it. She sighed as the phone rang, and the waiting room receptionist called a family with the last name "Mark".

The call wasn't for her. They wouldn't tell her about Claire.

She still had to wait.

Sophie sighed again as she closed her eyes and, feeling heavy, drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When Sophie opened her eyes, she couldn't see. Everything was dark, the color black looking ugly as she tried to blink, blink, blink, still seeing nothing. She began to panic, the emotion running through her like water runs through oil, before suddenly she realized what was happening -

It wasn't that she _couldn't_ see, it was that there was nothing _to_ see.

She didn't know where she was, but everything was black, the monster named darkness swallowing both color and life whole. There weren't even stars above her where the sky should have been. There was simply _nothing_.

Well, nothing other than her, but she hardly felt that she counted as _something_.

"Hello!" Sophie tried to scream, tried to get her voice to carry, but the darkness swallowed it too, and it didn't even echo. "_Hello_!" her voice was louder the second time, but it didn't carry any further than it had the first time she'd screamed.

Sophie looked around in the blackness and waited, but still she saw nothing. The only light around seemed to be her, because when she looked down, her hands were glowing, as well as her shoes, her legs, and the rest of her.

Sophie felt herself shiver as she drifted along in the blackness, not quite sure what to do. She had no idea where she was, and she had no idea how to get back to the hospital where Claire and her friends were located. And though she didn't want to admit it, she felt _lonely_, all by herself.

And it was then that she realized that she wasn't used to being _lonely_ anymore.

Loneliness was a feeling she had grown used to not feeling over the past weeks, since the characters from the Yu Yu verse had shown up. Even when she'd tried to get privacy, tried to think, someone had been there nagging her - whether it was Yusuke or Kuwabara saying they were hungry, or that they couldn't get the TV to work; Kurama, smiling softly and asking where Claire was; Keiko and Botan, chatting at the kitchen table; Koenma, looking for a way home...or Hiei, who never seemed to leave her alone.

She'd gotten used to the sound of noise, used to the feel of her friend's presences. She hadn't even realized how normal things had become with them there, how much she now felt like she needed them.

Was it just irony that soon they would be gone...or was it a destined sense of cruelty?

Sophie thought on this as the large nothing circled around her, moving though it was black. All this time she'd been focusing on Claire, focusing on how she wanted her Yu Yu friends to leave so that she didn't have to bother with them, and now it seemed like such a waste. Now she wished that she had more time - both with Claire, and her friends.

But, she knew her wishing was for nothing, because no matter what she wanted, neither wish would come true...And maybe that was okay. Maybe she just needed to take life as it came.

Maybe it was time she started feeling grateful for the things she had, instead of always taking them for granted.

It was a ripple in the large black thing that caused Sophie to look up, and she was surprised to see Hiei floating in the darkness along with her. He looked strange, because she could only see part of him, since both his clothes and hair were black, blending in with the giant darkness.

"There you are," he said in a bored tone, scowling. Then he glanced around, taking in the darkness, and scowled even further.

Sophie frowned at him, saving her scowl. She didn't want to admit that she was overjoyed to see him. "How did you get here?" she asked, and then glanced around as well, feeling dizzy with all of the darkness. "Where _are_ we, anyway?"

"Stupid human. Haven't you realized yet?" Hiei scowled deeper at that, though the scowl wasn't as bad as some of the other ones she'd seen. "Whenever you're overwhelmed, you slip into your subconscious. It's obviously a bad habit if yours," he shrugged at that, still scowling, as if it weren't that bad at all.

Sophie felt a weight press onto her head when he said that, realizing what he meant. If he'd told her this any sooner, she probably wouldn't have been able to comprehend it, but now...now it made sense.

He was _right_.

Whenever she was depressed, she seemed to pass out, or fall asleep, and usually she had strange dreams - dreams in which she was in a memory. But when she dreamed things, the memories didn't act like dreams because she was usually aware that she was in her mind, that she wasn't awake. She usually slipped into the memories as if they were the present, reliving things in her mind. Though this time, she was too depressed to see anything.

She spent much too much time in the past, and not enough in the present.

It was the rolling of the darkness around her that shook Sophie from her thoughts. It stretched through the air as she felt the breath leave her lungs, felt the darkness gripping her painfully. She saw Hiei eyes narrow when this happened, and then the darkness let go, and she could breathe again.

"You have to go back to reality," Hiei intoned, voice dark as he regarded her, the blackness starting to swirl again. "There's too much emotion in this pocket of your mind, and no way to contain it. If you stay any longer, it's going to break down, and take you with it."

Sophie gasped as he said this, feeling the darkness start to grip her again. It was then she finally realized that Hiei had invaded her mind, that she wasn't just dreaming him. "But why didn't you just _wake_ me up?" she asked, feeling a little annoyed that he had invaded her mind instead, knowing she didn't appreciate that. "Why did you come after me?"

"I couldn't wake you up," a shadow came over Hiei's face, as if the darkness were trying to swallow him, too. "You're in too deep, so I had to come get you. Another one of your annoying traits. Now come on, follow me," he turned away from her then and started to melt into the darkness, and when Sophie went to follow him, she found she couldn't move.

She was stuck, both in her mind and in her ways.

Though she wanted to move on, her heart still wouldn't leave Claire behind, wouldn't accept that her best friend was going to die. And though she felt like she needed her new friends, she still couldn't accept them, couldn't accept the help that they had been offering all this time.

She didn't know how to move forward, but she didn't want to move back.

Hiei seemed to sense that she couldn't move, and turned back towards her. When he scowled, it almost looked amused. "You really _are_ a stupid human," he said, and for a rare occasion offered her his hand.

And Sophie pushed past all the walls that she had put up, all the things she had come to expect of herself, and took his hand, watching as the darkness around her evaporated, and she opened her eyes to see the light.

* * *

**Hello, everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, as always! Thank you for reading!  
**

**Dedicated to: Anon, SylphWolf, PiNkBuN17, and Missy. Thank you so much for the reviews! **

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm posting a poll to see who how many of you would like to see a sequel to this story. I've been thinking about it, but I want to know how many of you are interested. Please take the poll and let me know! **

**This story only has a few chapters left, so we'll be seeing the end real soon...sniff, sniff. **

**~Foxgirl Ray  
**


	17. November 9th

**November 9****th**

Claire drifted in and out of consciousness, though she never opened her eyes.

She could hear people moving, sense things being scanned and tested, hear the buzz of the annoying heart monitor in her ear. She could feel it, though only lightly, as people pricked her skin, as the IV dug into her veins, as her lungs felt like they might break. She could also feel the tiredness that bore into her bones, weighing her down…

What she didn't hear or feel, however, was Sophie.

Where was her best friend, now that she needed her most?

* * *

Sophie wanted to kill someone. She really did.

"What do you _mean_ I can't see her?" she knew her voice was shrill, nearly crazed sounding, but she didn't care. She was angry, and nothing could hold her anger back - or her annoyance, or her impatience, or her fear and worry. "You said she's stable, right? So shouldn't we be able to see her?" she glared at the doctor standing in front of her, who sighed. "Or shouldn't_ I_ be able to see her at least? I'm only one person, so I won't scare her, and I doubt she's even awake yet."

The doctor, who was at least a foot taller than Sophie, sighed again as he checked his clipboard another time, adjusting his glasses as he scanned the page he'd already looked at at least five times. He was actually a pretty handsome doctor - his skin tan and his eyes a nice green and his shirt tucked in, with a hawaiian tie - but at the moment he looked extremely ugly to Sophie. And she didn't care how tall he was, either, because she still wanted to attack him.

After all, he wouldn't let her see Claire, wouldn't even tell her what was going to happen to her, how much time she had left…if she had any.

Sophie felt her stomach churn, bile rising in her throat when she thought that, and snagged a glance at Hiei, who was sitting in the same seat he'd been sitting in all night, looking bored. It hadn't been that long since she'd woken up from her dream, since he'd all but dragged her out of her mind. The others hadn't returned yet, so as far as moral support, he was the only one she had…

And he wasn't doing such a great job of being supportive, not that Sophie had expected he would.

Hiei noticed her watching him and raised an eyebrow her way, questioning. Sophie frowned back at him when he didn't move, and turned back towards the doctor she was currently trying to keep herself from strangling, feeling her already jumbled emotions cause her even more pain.

Why was it that when she was having a hard time, Hiei was the only source of moral support she was given? It just wasn't fair.

Though, Sophie had to admit, the fact that he was there made her feel a little bit braver, even if he didn't pretend to care what was going on. His presence alone reassured her that, at least, she wasn't _completely_ alone.

"I'm afraid that visiting hours don't start until tomorrow morning," the doctor finally got around to giving Sophie his speech, which she'd heard three times already. "Due to the trauma the patient has suffered, we can't allow you to see her right at this moment," he dipped his head, looking down at her, and again she wanted to punch him. "I'm very sorry."

Sophie wanted to tell him just how sorry he would be if he didn't let her see Claire right that second, but before she could open her mouth to protest, the door to the waiting room opened, admitting her other friends.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were the first ones to be seen. They waved at her as they grinned, rushing over, and Sophie felt thankful to them for their smiles, because she certainly didn't feel like smiling.

Everything was happening so fast, and she didn't feel ready for it, even though she'd known it would happen eventually.

"Hey, Sophie!" Yusuke was the first one to speak, clapping her on the shoulder as he grinned wider, offering her a wrapped-up sandwich. "We got you some food. You should eat - it's not as awful as it looks," Sophie looked down at the sandwich and frowned. It looked like it might have been tuna, though she couldn't be sure. She felt her stomach churn again, the idea of food somehow repulsive. Yusuke glanced past her towards Hiei as the rest of her friends entered the room, and the doctor slunk away. "We didn't get anything for Hiei, since I've never actually seen him eat," Yusuke laughed at that, and Sophie could imagine that Hiei was glaring at him.

And she tried to smile back. She _really_ did, though she didn't feel like it.

Instead, she simply nodded before handing the sandwich back to Yusuke, who looked at her with confusion as he took it. "Thanks," she said. "but I'm not hungry," she then glanced over at the doctor who, as he'd been trying to leave, had been stopped by none other than Kurama, who seemed to be quizzing him, his green eyes almost steely. "We're going to be here for a while, so you might want to get some sleep."

It was Kuwabara who frowned first, drawing Sophie's eyes away from the doctor and the questioning fox. "Huh?" he asked. "But why? What's goin' on?"

Sophie's heart felt heavy as she sighed, and began to explain things.

Obviously, Claire wasn't doing too well. When they'd brought her to the hospital she'd been taken away immediately, thus why Sophie and the others had been waiting for news on her condition all day. And now she was stable, though not any better, and because of the trauma she'd faced, none of them could see her…at least, not until eight in the morning, which was exactly seven hours away.

Sophie had a feeling that part of why they couldn't see her friend was because none of them were actually related to Claire. Hospitals didn't tend to let just anyone in to see a critical patient. And though Claire was living with Sophie, and had been for a while, since Sophie's mother wasn't there to relate the living arrangements, there was nothing that any of them could do.

Well, nothing they could do unless force was used, which Sophie didn't want. Even though she knew her friends were strong and could have no doubt gotten their way, she didn't want to cause any trouble - especially since, once they were gone, she would have to live with whatever trouble they left behind.

Sophie's heart felt even heavier as she finished explaining this to Yusuke and Kuwabara, both of whom offered to make the doctor let her see Claire, just as she'd feared. She laughed the invitation off with what might have been a smile before she shook her head, and they frowned but consented to stay out of it, before the two of them moved, loping off to find a seat.

When Sophie looked up, Kurama was still quizzing the doctor, so she once again took her seat, right next to Hiei.

Silence reigned for a few moments, since Hiei didn't speak, but before long, Sophie couldn't take it.

She had to say _something_. She had to get what she was thinking off of her chest.

She wasn't like Hiei, she couldn't just ignore it, couldn't go without it being said.

"My best friend is dying, and here I'm worrying about what I'm going to do once you guys are gone," she admitted, taking another glance at the doctor and Kurama, who seemed to have finished speaking, the doctor looking immensely pale as he shakily left the room, and the fox swiftly sat down to wait with the rest of them. "I'm awfully selfish."

She knew she sounded like she was complaining, but she couldn't help it. Right now, she didn't know what to think. Everything seemed wrong, and all of her certainties were uncertain - accept one, the fact that Claire was probably going to be gone before the end of the week…maybe even _sooner_.

And then of course, there were the thoughts lurking in the back of her mind. She hated to admit them out loud, but again, she couldn't help it. Her head felt as if it would burst if she didn't say something, even if it did sound selfish.

And she _knew_ it sounded selfish. She knew that all too well…

But if it sounded selfish, then there was nothing she could do about it, was there? She couldn't keep the thoughts from invading her mind.

She was worried - about a lot of things. First of all was Claire, of course, though she knew worrying over Claire was kind of useless, a fact which Hiei kept oh-so-nicely reminding her of.

Second was of course her new friends (who she really couldn't call "new" anymore, she supposed, since she'd known them personally for a while now), who were due to disappear any moment now. Not only would she miss seeing them, but she knew she'd be lying to herself if she said there wouldn't be a void left by them when they were gone, a space with which she knew she wouldn't be able to fill anything else.

But that wasn't all. There was something else plaguing her mind, too. Something she hadn't even realized had been plaguing it until now.

Sophie knew Hiei had caught onto her thoughts as soon as he opened his eyes, looking over at her immediately. The rest of him didn't move, sitting still in the chair, relaxed and obviously bored, but those crimson eyes of his flashed like lightening.

"You're an even stupider human than I thought you were," he said in a dark tone, as if that explained everything, and Sophie felt her temper rise.

The chair made a clinking noise as she stood, her fists balling. "Stop calling me _stupid_!" she said loudly, glaring down at him. And of course, he didn't flinch. In fact, he still looked bored, other than those eyes of his, which may have narrowed just an inch. "I'm smarter than you think!"

"You sure have a strange way of showing it," Hiei's mouth turned down when he said that, and then glanced away from her, narrowed eyes scanning the waiting room once before returning to her face. "You're making a scene."

Sophie's face turned red before she had a chance to look around, knowing that he was right, knowing that her voice had to have been heard just now, when she'd been shouting. She almost didn't look out into the waiting room, not wanting to face the stares she would be met with.

But she did, face turning even redder when she looked.

The unfamiliar faces in the waiting room looked back at her with a variety of expressions - some of them were angry looking, some wary, some sad, and some just plain tired. One guy was even laughing, trying to cover his chuckles with a hand. And when Sophie met the faces of her friends, she simply wanted to die of embarrassment. Somehow, it was worse for her friends to see her acting senseless than it was for strangers to stare at her.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had obviously been fighting over the sandwich they'd gotten her from the cafe, half of which was hanging out of Yusuke's mouth as he gaped at her, looking very unattractive. Koenma, Botan and Keiko, who Sophie sometimes forgot were there, all looked surprised, eyes wide. Kurama's mouth was twitching somewhere between amusement and annoyance.

And, Sophie knew, if Claire had been there, she would have been smiling. Maybe laughing.

But she wasn't there. How cruel was that?

Sophie sighed, trying to get her red face to quiet down as she sat back in her seat. She folded her arms grumpily for a moment, the occupants of the waiting room going back to their lives, before she looked back at Hiei.

He was staring straight ahead, as if she weren't there, maybe thinking.

Sophie interrupted his thoughts.

"You shouldn't insult people so much," she said in the tone that started off stern, but that she toned down to simple annoyance. She looked away from him, at her shoes. "Really. It's a wonder anybody likes you."

Sophie could have swore she saw Hiei's mouth curve upward just a bit when she said that, though when she glanced at him, the amusement was gone.

And she decided not to push the subject - considering _she_ was one of the people who _liked _him, even though he was more than a pain. And she definitely didn't want to be discussing that. Not that she believed he knew that she liked him, anyway.

Hiei put his hands behind his head in a relaxed fashion, but when his eyes shifted to her again, they were anything but relaxed. In fact, they were so intense, Sophie nearly felt sick.

"I think you have the right to be selfish, given the circumstances. You're under the impression we're going to disappear," he said, and from his tone, she knew it wasn't a question. It was a fact. "and that you'll be left here," he frowned. "At least, that's what you thought at first," his slight, amused smile returned then, and Sophie resisted the urge to smack him.

He'd invaded her thoughts.

Again.

_You really have to stop doing that. _Sophie thought as she frowned, biting her lip. _Otherwise you're going to hear something that you don't want to know. _

Hiei raised an eyebrow at her, as if to ask "what makes you think I haven't already", and Sophie wanted to die of embarrassment again.

More so this time.

He probably had heard something embarrassing, after all, and just hadn't said anything. He probably knew a lot of the things she'd been thinking - things that she didn't want him to know.

Like the fact that she liked him.

_Maybe_.

Hiei's thin smile vanished then. "Your thoughts prove yet again how stupid you are," he said, and when Sophie opened her mouth to protest, his eyes narrowed into a glare, and she jumped. "We have no idea how we got here, how we know your language. Koenma hasn't been able to figure it out, and the fox has been no help. So what if we _do_ disappear? What if _you_ disappear with us? It is a possibility. Isn't that what you've been thinking?" his last question was, again, more of a statement.

A_ true_ statement.

The thought had crept into Sophie's mind a few times since she'd met her otherworldly friends, though every time the thought had appeared, she had shut it out, not willing to believe it.

At first, she'd been hoping that Claire might miraculously get better, that her new friends might be able to help, and she hadn't wanted to think about vanishing, leaving her best friend behind. And then, when she was sure that Claire was going to die, she'd been afraid that maybe she would disappear before the YuYu gang did, and miss Claire's death entirely…or that they may all disappear, and she might get lost, end up in some other anime. And most recently, she hadn't wanted to disappear at all, because she'd been afraid of vanishing, of leaving her life behind; she'd been afraid that if she left the world she knew, she wouldn't fit in, and that, over time, her memories of Claire would disappear, just as she had.

Hiei's eyes darkened to a deep red as he grimaced at her, no doubt picking up on her thoughts again. "There's no sense in worrying about things beyond your control," he said, before his grimace grew into a scowl. "It makes you irritable, and then I have to put up with your moods," he turned away from her again and closed his eyes, shutting her out completely as he once again adopted his bored expression.

And Sophie stared at him a moment, her thoughts conflicting.

She didn't feel so afraid now that everything was near the end. And she knew that Hiei was right. She knew she couldn't control things - because if she could have, Claire wouldn't be dying, and her YuYu friends would never leave. And she knew that whatever happened, she would find a way to survive.

But…there were things she didn't want to let go of yet, even if they were being yanked from her grasp.

* * *

Sophie was called into the room what seemed like moments later, even though it was hours later, because she knew she'd fallen asleep sitting in her chair. She stifled a yawn as she was led down the hall, all by herself, her friends still in the waiting room.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had given her a thumbs up when she'd left, and Kurama's smile had been reassuring. Even Hiei had opened his eyes to look at her from across the room, gaze saying everything but nothing.

Sophie took a deep breath when she reached the doorway, which was shut, feeling her whole body start to shake. She knew that her friends were behind her - more behind her than anyone had ever been - but this, right now, she had to do _alone_.

She had to face the truth alone, because otherwise, she would never be able to let go.

Sophie's breath was ragged when she reached for the doorknob, hand shaking, but she composed herself when she opened the door, stepping into the room quietly.

The room was exactly what she would have expected for a hospital room - sterile, white, boring. The TV wasn't on, and the blinds were closed, the lights a blinding white. The heart monitor beeped in greeting, sounding strangely slow, as the IV dripped from its place. There was a bed on one side of the room, chairs next to it, and a bench on the other side, long with black cushions.

And in the bed was Claire.

Sophie looked at her and blinked, the door closing behind her.

She couldn't describe how her friend looked. In one way she was pale, thin, white. In another she was almost…puffy, like she was swollen or something. And at the same time she looked like she always did.

Despite herself, Sophie smiled when she saw her best friend, who, though she was lying in a hospital, seemed almost peaceful, her face untroubled by worries. She walked over to Claire's side and looked down at her friend, who opened her eyes.

"Hey," Sophie said, not sure what else to say.

Did Claire know who she was? Did she know where she was, why she was there? Could she even talk at the moment?

Though Sophie was pretty sure it shouldn't have been possible, she heard Claire speak, her voice faint, her eyes strangely milky, though also glassy.

"Please don't be sad," she said in a small voice - so small that Sophie could barely hear it. "Please move on. I'm always going to be with you," her smile turned thin, her eyes shutting halfway, as she asked: "Will you remember - don't forget to remember me?"

Despite herself, Sophie smiled at the request, knowing exactly where it had come from. It was a song, one that Claire had been in love with and listened to a million times over when her family had been in their car wreck. Unlike Sophie's song, "Leave the Pieces", this one was all about moving on and not forgetting the things you left behind. The people you loved.

Sophie bit her bottom lip through her smile as her eyes teared up, glad her other friends weren't present. She grasped Claire's hand as she hummed part of the song.

"_God I feel so small sometimes, _

_In this big old place… _

_And I know there's more important things, _

_But don't forget to remember me." _

Sophie nodded, squeezing Claire's clammy and cold hand. "I won't forget if you don't forget," she promised as Claire's eyes drifted shut, a sweet smile on her face.

"_Don't forget to remember me." _

* * *

**Hello, everyone! So sorry for the wait! Life has been crazy lately, but I'm here with an update! XD**

**In case anyone's interested, the song used in this chapter is by Carry Underwood, and it's called "Don't Forget To Remember Me". It's one of my favorite songs, and I think it really suits Claire, so I was glad to use it. **

**Anywho, please review! I love to get comments! And thank you for reading!  
**


	18. November 9th, Part Two

**November 9****th**** (Part Two)**

Claire's ears could hear it. It was a faint sound, though it seemed to echo around her, making her spirit leap with happiness.

_Laughter_. It was laughter, though it was quiet. And she recognized the voices.

Claire's eyes opened slowly, and she blinked once before she could see it. The laughter continued quietly as she looked at the opposite side of the room, a small smile managing to grace her face.

Though the image was blurred at the edges, she could see the figures clearly. They were either sitting or standing by the bench at the other end of the room, all huddled together into a group.

The girls, Botan and Keiko, were sitting at one end of the bench, smiling at the others, Botan's smile wider than Keiko's. Koenma looked like he was trying not to laugh, trying not to loose his princely appearance. Yusuke and Kuwabara were the one's laughing, both pointing at Hiei, who looked very uncomfortable sitting at the very end of the bench, Sophie's head somehow on his shoulder, her eyes closed since she seemed to be asleep. Though he kept glancing at her, expression ranging from annoyance to what almost looked like embarrassment, he didn't show any signs of brushing her off.

And Claire wanted to laugh too, wanted to join Yusuke and Kuwabara, though she knew she couldn't, because her time was almost up. Though there was one last thing to be done, one last face to see.

Someone was missing from the picture…

Claire's eyes moved slowly, and she found him, sitting in the chair next to her bed. Though his green eyes were sad, there was small smile on his face.

_They all seem happy. _His eyes seemed to say. _Now that you've seen this, do you think you can move on?_

And Claire was grateful to him, because for once, he wasn't trying to_ pretend_.

Claire looked back at the strange group one last time, her eyes lingering on her best friend. Though it would be hard, she had a feeling that Sophie would be alright.

Her friend was strong, and she wasn't alone now. She would find a way to move on.

And Claire knew she wouldn't be forgotten.

Claire turned her eyes back to Kurama one last time, managing a very small, very frail smile.

_Yes. _She tried to say back, hoping her eyes relayed the message. _I'm ready now. _

She could move on, because she knew her friends were safe. They would all find their way eventually, even if it took some time.

Claire's eyes slipped closed after sending him one last message, and she was gone.

And Kurama sighed, dealing with the sadness in his own way, as he remembered the words.

"_Don't forget to remember me." _


	19. Epilogue: January 9th

**Epilogue: January 9****th**

Sophie's breath created a mist in front of her as she sighed, sitting on the porch at her mother's inn.

It was cold out, still winter, and yet it was due to rain, not quite cold enough for snow. But somehow, Sophie didn't feel very cold. Some may have said the lack of cold was due to her jacket, her boots, her scarf, or her gloves…but Sophie had a feeling it had more to do with her friends' presences.

"Hey, Sophie, isn't it supposed to snow today?" Yusuke yelled as he appeared out of the trees, Kuwabara next to him. He held up a trash can lid, a huge grin on his face. "I found this. Don't you think it would be good for sledding?"

Before Sophie could say anything, Kuwabara appeared next to Yusuke, frown on his face. "No way, Urameshi," he said, looking down at the lid. "Your big butt is _not_ going to fit on that thing."

"Your butt's _twice_ the size of _mine_," Yusuke frowned at the comment, raising the lid, as if he might hit Kuwabara with it. Then he grinned again. "Oh wait, or maybe that's your_ face_?"

Sophie sighed as the two began to fight, not even having time to tell them that no, it wasn't going to snow. Though she wished it would…

Claire had always loved the snow.

"It's been two months," it was Hiei's voice from beside her that rocked Sophie's thoughts. She looked up to find him standing about a foot away, looking down at her with his sharp eyes.

And Sophie nodded, closing her eyes with a small, sad smile.

It had been two months since Claire had passed away, since she'd lost her best friend. She had died early - earlier than the doctors had expected. There had been a funeral - though very small - a few days later, and everyone had attended. And though the last two months had mostly been a blur for Sophie, she knew that her friends had been there, and that she'd gotten through it.

It was taking time, but she was moving on, slowly but surely.

"_Don't forget to remember me." _

And she was keeping Claire's smiling face in her mind, letting her friend's promise to always be with her ring true.

"Do you think two months is significant?" this time it was Kurama's voice that interrupted her thoughts, the fox appearing in front of her and Hiei. His green eyes fixed on Hiei in a questioning way. "Koenma and I have yet to find our reason for being here, or our means. Do you think perhaps time has something to do with it?"

Sophie looked up at him, his words making her feel heavy, though not as heavy as they used to.

During the past two months, her friends had continued to search for a way home, and she found she couldn't blame them. She knew they couldn't stay forever, because they were needed back in their world. And she had also come to terms with the fact that she couldn't control everything - couldn't control when they left, or whether or not she went with them.

She would just have to wait and see, and if she had to say goodbye, let go of something else, then she would. And she would move on again.

She would be strong, even when she didn't feel like it.

"How am I to know if time has anything to do with it?" Hiei's voice was strangely snippish when he answered Kurama, who simply looked at him for a moment before his mouth curved into a smug smile, and he gracefully walked away.

It took Sophie a moment to realize that Hiei had been stating the pass of time for her benefit, not to make a point of anything.

And she felt grateful to him for that, because even when he was being a jerk (most of the time), he was also being sweet (some of the time). He was letting her know that she had survived two months, something that, before, she would have never thought possible.

"Wow, it really_ has_ been two months," Sophie stated, this time for his benefit. She looked up at the sky as he glanced at her. "I miss Claire," she admitted, and he looked away, seemingly uncomfortable. "But I think I'm going to be alright."

The grey clouds hung over them as Sophie thought: _"Right, Claire? Am I going to be okay?" _

And as wet stuff began to fall from the sky - _snow_, not rain, but _snow_, even though it wasn't supposed to be snowing - Sophie's eyes widened, and she was sure she heard a voice reply: _"Yes." _

"_You're going to be okay." _

* * *

**Hello, everyone! Well, this is the end of the story. I really hope you enjoyed reading it! I want to thank everyone who reviewed this story for all your feedback! I really appreciated it! **

**It's almost sad to see this story go...I've decided not to do the sequel after all. Sorry to those of you who wanted to read it. I've thought more, and I honestly like this story better as-is. I think a sequel wouldn't do the original justice...**

**Anywho, thanks again to everyone who read this. I hope you all enjoyed it!  
**


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